Meaning behind the Swirl
by Twinkies4lifes
Summary: After having the Nine-Tails extracted from her, Kushina gives Naruto a parting gift before she dies. A key that unlocks a secret the Uzumaki Clan have been protecting for centuries. A secret not even she knows about. Now she will entrust Naruto to find out what this 'secret' is that their clan have been chosen to protect for so long. But it won't be easy and he won't do it alone.
1. Chapter 1

**Yo!**

 **This story and idea were strongly inspired by Psycho G story Sealed Legacy and I like to thank him for giving me permission to use some of his ideas in my story. And to thank him for giving me his blessing.**

 **Disclaimer: Why the hell do authors put disclaimers at the start of every chapter? Shouldn't it common knowledge that only kishimoto owns Naruto? Whatever might as well join the club. So yeah don't own Naruto. But Psycho G does own Sealed Legacy and all the elements I'll be using from that story. So credit to him for letting me use them.**

 **Update: This is the Updated Version of Chapter 1. Just telling you right now that not much has changed except for dialogue. So if you're coming from the other chapters feel free to reread this if you want.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1. Gift**

Currently resting on a bed in a secure safe house hidden within the forest outside the walls of The Hidden Leaf Village was a woman in her early 20's with long red fiery hair and violet eyes. She was wearing a white high-collared sleeveless blouse, with the lower part of her blouse been ripped off revealing her navel, and a loose-fitting green dress tied around her waist to cover her lower half to make up for the lack of pants and sandals. The woman looked exhausted if her heavy breathing and slighty sweaty forehead were any indications.

This woman was Kushina Uzumaki. Wife to The Fourth Hokage, one of the last members of the Uzumaki Clan and now former Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, but also the mother of the baby she just gave birth to about 10 minutes ago.

Standing on the side of the bed with a downcast look was a man also in his early 20's who had bright blond spiky hair with two jaw-length bangs framing both sides of his face while several smaller bangs hovered a little over his blue eyes. His attire consisted off a long-sleeved blue shirt with two bands over each sleeve, blue pants and sandals with bandages tied around his ankles. The man was holding a sleeping newborn baby who had blond hair and whisker shape birth marks, his tiny body covered by a blue blanket.

This man was Minato Namikaze. Husband to Kushina Uzumaki, Fourth Hokage of The Hidden Leaf and now father to the infant sleeping in his arms.

"Minato..." Kushina said in a ragged voice as she looked at her husband with tired and worried filled eyes, "Please stop that masked man, he is going to use the power of the Nine-Tails to destroy the Leaf."

"Don't worry, I will," The Fourth said with a small smile as he laid his son next to his mother before he helped Kushina turn her body to face their sleeping child. He pulled a blanket to cover both of them, "In the meantime just stay here with Naruto, okay. I'm going to fix this mess."

The exhausted woman looked at her sweet baby's face and couldn't stop the tears from falling of her eyes. She raised a hand towards the baby's face and slowly pulled his face closer to hers. She proceeded to weep as soon as her forehead was touching Naruto's. "Thank you Minato. Thank you for saving our baby, thank you."

The Fourth couldn't stop the tears from rising into his eyes at the sight of his wife and son together. Under different circumstances he would have cried tears of joy at the sight of his wife and son together like a true family. But the situation that they were in right now isn't anything to be happy about.

When he thought of the one who cause this whole ordeal Minato clenched his fist in anger. It was a man wearing a black hooded cloak, a white mask with a right eye hole and black flame designs, he is the one responsible for all of this. At first Minato figured the man was here to kill him but that all changed when the masked man revealed that his true target was the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki, Kushina. For whatever reasons he wanted Kushina; Minato didn't care. He wasn't going to let this man take away his wife and the mother of his child no matter what.

But what greatly disturbed Minato was the fact the man somehow knew that Kushina was the Jinchuuriki for the Nine-Tails; something only he, Jiraiya, Hiruzen, Biwako and a very selected few others know about. Not only that but he also kew where and when Kushina was going to give birth, and that a female jinchuuriki's seal drastically weakens during childbirth. And add the fact that he killed the entire platoon of ANBU he assigned to protect them and made his way into the sealing chamber, undetected by the barrier, made this unknown assailant very dangerous. The man also murdered Kushina's midwives, Biwako Sarutobi, the wife of his predecessor the Third Hokage, and her assistant Taji, an ANBU medical ninja.

Things only went downhill after that.

The man then managed to get a hold of the newly born Naruto and warned Minato that if he didn't backed away from Kushina then he would kill the child right there and now. Minato tried to talk to man, to try and settle everything peacefully without anymore violence. The masked man just scoffed and called the Hokage a naïve fool before he threw the crying infant into the air and pulled out a kunai ready to stab the child. But just as he was about to kill the baby Minato used his **Hiraishin** and caught the baby instantly in midair. But the hooded man clearly planned ahead when he activated the explosive tags hidden within Naruto's blanket, forcing the Yellow Flash to use his signature jutsu once again to teleport to another location so to avoid been blown up with his son.

After that the masked man teleported himself and Kushina to a hidden valley where he proceeded to extract the Tailed-beast out of its weakened seal and put it under his control. With the Nine-Tails out and completely under his control he forced it to kill its jailor only for his plan to fail when a yellow flash appeared and then disappeared in the blink of an eye along with the red head. With the Hokage and his wife gone the hooded man proceeded to make his way towards the Hidden Leaf with the Demon Fox in tow.

As soon as he had Kushina with him Minato teleported them and their son to their now current location, a safe house only they and no one else knows about.

Hearing the sounds of the Demon fox destroying his beloved village; Minato blinked his tears away and relaxed his hands. His attention now returned to the situation in hand. The depressed look on his face was replaced with one of hardened determination. As Hokage, husband and now father he has a duty to fulfill; protect his village and his family. He turned around and walked across the room until he reached his closet. Opening it he then proceeded to put on his Jounin flak jacket, strapped a kunai holster full of his infamous tri-pronged kunai and tied his headband on his forehead. He finished of by putting on his signature Hokage trench coat.

"Minato…" The exhausted red head said as she turned her head just in time to see Minato put his cloak on. Red kanji for 'Fourth Hokage' was written vertically down the back of the coat with red flame motifs decorated the bottom edges. Kushina would always get this awe feeling every time she watched him put on that coak when his back was facing her, and today was no exception. The feeling only intensify when a slight breeze came in through the open window to give his flame motifs the illusion of actual flames.

"…Good luck." Kushina whispered.

"I'll be right back." Was all Minato said before disappearing in a yellow flash, leaving his wife and son alone in the room.

As soon as he left Kushina quickly use all her strength to try and get of the bed and on her feet. " _I don't have a lot of time, I need to do this now and as quickly as possible before Minato returns!_ " Kushina thought in desperation. She already knows how this terrible day will end for her. But that doesn't mean she isn't going down without a fight. Without giving her son a parting gift.

She may have giving birth about 15 minutes ago, and had a tailed beast extracted out of her shorty after that but been an Uzumaki meant she possesses a strong life source and longevity. But even that won't save her from her inevitable death, her life force was the only thing that kept her alive after the masked man force the Nine-Tails out of her. She guesses she only has minutes to live, more than enough to time to do what she needs to do.

When she got of the bed and onto her feet it caused a slight movement on the bed, causing baby Naruto to wake up and start crying. Kushina quickly picked up Naruto and started rocking him back and forth while humming a lullaby.

"There, there, my little maelstrom, no need to cry," Kishina said in a southing voice as she continue to rock him back and forth while continuing her lullaby. "Mommy just needs to do something before daddy comes back, Ok?"

She continued her actions for a few more seconds until her baby stopped crying and eventually he did stop. She looked down expecting to see her son sleeping peacefully but instead she was greeted with him head up, wide awake and staring at her violet eyes with his blue ones. Kushina gave a silent laugh to her son and poked his whiskered cheek causing him to giggle a bit and grab her finger.

"Hehe…Seems that you also inherited your father's eyes but it seems you'll be stuck with my chubby face in return... If only you've gotten my red hair." Kushina said to herself before chucking a bit at the comment she made. "Sorry about that."

Baby Naruto just ignore his mother's words and continued to played with her finger until he eventually got tired and released it, closed his eyes and fell asleep in his mothers arms.

When she saw her baby finally sleeping Kushina quickly, but quitely, started walking towards the right side of the room until she stopped right in front of a blank wall. She adjusted herself so that her left arm was holding Naruto and her right arm was free. Placing her right hand on the wall she closed her eyes and focused her chakra, " _Activate!"_

She released what little amount of chakra she has left to activate the hidden seal; which thankfully only required the small amount. She opened her eyes but kept her hand on the wall until the seal would fully activate.

Glowing sealing arrays then started to spread and spin around the wall where kushina's hand was still placed on, they started spinning outward until they resemble a circle with a diameter of one meter. In the middle of the seal were more complex seals all intertwining with one another and spiraling outward until they reached the outline of the circle. Six magatama were placed around the circle along with other sealing arrays connecting them to the middle of the whole seal, one of the magatama glowed a faint orange.

The Uzumaki looked at the now activated seal and smiled; her left arm still holding Naruto and her right hand still stretched out in the middle of the giant seal key. Kushina's glad the whole activation only lasted 10 seconds and not longer. If one were to look closely they would see that the entire thing is not one seal but made up of tiny working seals. Every stroke, every curve, every line is made up tiny moving seals; all of them traveling at great speeds that it would take someone with a keen eye to even noticed they were moving in the first place. It's almost like the entire thing was a living being with the tiny moving seals acting like its blood cells and the middle its heart. Truly the work of a true Uzumaki Seal master.

" _Almost done…_ " Kushina said in her mind. She turned her hand clockwise and the result was instantaneous. The tiny seals completely stopped moving and the seal started to shrink in size until it was completely gone. Finally removing her hand from the wall, Kushina looked to her hand and saw the symbol of her clan imprinted on her palm.

Kushina gave a relief smile at the sight. " _It's done. Now t-_ " She didn't get finish her thought before been grab from the side and somehow ending up outside a plain field surrounded by the forrest trees. When she turned her head she saw a tired Minato holding her and a now crying Naruto. A pissed of Nine-Tails could also be seen several meters behind them.

"Sorry about that Kushina….and sorry for waking you up, Naruto." Minato panted with a tired smile as he tried to calm the crying baby.

"Minato! What happened to the masked man? Did you defeat him?" Kushina asked.

"Can't explain… right now… can you… put up a barrier please." Minato asked tirelessly.

Kushina nodded as she summoned what little chakra she had left. Golden chains with kunai at their ends quickly erupted from her back and went to restrained the demon fox while at the same time creating a barrier around them to keep anything and anyone from entering or leaving.

"Alright Minato, quickly reseal the Nine-Tails back inside of me." Kushina said. Seeing the confused and shocking look her husband was giving her, she decided to explain, "I'm going to take the Nine-Tails down with me, we'll die together, that way we can prevent it from coming back for only for a little while. Giving you enough time to come up with a plan to stop it and raise Naruto."

Minato shook his head in response, "No Kushina, there's no need for you to die, because I figured out a way to stop the Nine-Tails." he solemnly said. "I'm going to make Naruto the hero who saved the Leaf Village. I'm going to seal half of the Nine-Tails chakra inside Naruto using the **Reaper Death Seal**."

Kushina eyes widened in shock and fear when she heard that, "Minato you can't use that jutsu! You know what will happen if you use it! The Shinigami will make it so your soul will never find peace and make you fight with the Nine-Tails for all eternity! Please why can't we just use my plan and save Naruto and the Village without going to such extreme measures?! Please Minato! I don't want our son to have to carry such a heavy burden." Tears started falling from Kushina's eyes as she begged him not to do it. The though of her son suffering a lonely life without them to protect him only made the tears fall faster. "...Please don't do it."

Minato looked at his wife with a sad smile, "Because even if we did go with your plan I could never forgive myself for letting you die, I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that. You already had the Nine Tails extracted from you so don't have a lot of time to live. The Nine-Tails will die yes, but what's to stop the same thing from happening again? That masked man will certainly wait till it's resurrected to control it and attempt to destroy the Leaf with it again. I'm sorry Kushina but we can't take that chance, this is the only way to insure something like that won't happen." He explained.

The red head only cried harder as she realized he is right. "This is the first time I lost an argument to you." She sobbed before chuckling a bit. "Proud of yourself?"

Minato chuckled lightly as he summon a sealing altar and placed the now sleeping Naruto on it. "First time for everything right?" He said before doing the necessary hand signs until he clasped his hands in a prayer like stance. A pale ghostly figure with horns, a blade on his mouth, beads in its hand and wearing white robes suddenly appeared behind him; but only Minato was able to see it, The Shinigami.

"I'm only going to seal the Yang-chakra inside Naruto that way he won't be influence by it's dark half." Minato explained before giving his a wife a smile. "Have faith in Naruto, he is our son after all and he is going to need the power of the Nine-Tails to protect the village and stop that man."

The Shinigami then extended its hand out of Minato's stomach and latched itself to the massive restrained Fox; ripping half of its chakra and sealing it inside the Fourth's Hokage's body. Minato grunted in pain at the feeling of having the demon's heavy chakra now within him. A sealing formula similar to the one Kushina had then appeared on his stomach.

The massive fox was now reduce to half its size after having half of itself taking away, causing some of the chains around his body to loosen. Seen an opportunity open up, the Nine-Tails roared ragefully and quickly went to the alter where the sleeping child was and attempted to kill him with its massive claws. " **You're all fools if you believe I'm going to let you seal me inside some brat again!** "

Only instead of killing the boy he ended up impaling Kushina and Minato; who jumped at the very moment they saw what he was about to do. They both manage to stop the claw from reaching Naruto, who was still sleeping peacefully. The Nine-Tail's claw only manage to make it a few inches away from touching the blond baby's face.

"Why'd you jump in Kushina?" Minato painfully cough with blood running down his mouth, "You know it's a fathers duty to die for his son."

"Stop trying to act cool, Minato," Kushina painfully replied with a slight smirk and blood also running down her mouth, "You're forgetting that I'm his mother and that dying for him is also my role too, y'know."

Minato just shook his head and smiled at the answer only he knows she would give. "It's seems that in the end we're both stubborn when it comes to this sort of stuff." He said.

Kushina couldn't help but slightly smirk but soon dropped it whe she quickly realizing something. "Minato, before you seal the rest of the Nine-Tails I need to give something to Naru-."

"Your going to give him the key to your clan's most guarded secret, aren't you?" Minato cut her off, already knowing what she was going to say before she even said it. "Is that right?"

Kushina quickly turned her head to look at Minato with wide shocked eyes, "H-How did you-"

"When I went to retrieve you at the safe house I noticed that you and Naruto weren't in the bed I left you both on." Minato answered, "I quickly realize you went to get the key you showed me a long time ago and were about to give it to Naruto, which I have to say was reckless of you to walk around in your condition holding our son after you just giving birth and had a tailed beast extracted out of you." Minato finished with a scold which caused his wife to look away and lower her head in shame and embarrassment.

"I'm sorry Minato," Kushina apologized with her head still down, "But you know I'm the only one capable of activating the seal and transferring it to Naruto. If I didn't do what I did then that seal would have stayed there forever without anyone knowing about it…without Naruto knowing about it. But I also did it because I believe he'll be able to figure out the meaning behind it and hopefully learn what secret my clan willingly died to protect."

Kushina then raised her head to look at Minato; determine fire reflecting of her violet orbs. "Like you said he's _our_ son and I'm putting all my faith in him to find out about his birthright just the same as you're putting your faith in him to protect the village from whatever is coming to destroy it. So if that makes me reckless; giving our son the means to find out what I couldn't then so be it. You know better than anyone that I would have done it even if costs me my life." She stated with sheer determination.

Minato stared at his wife's determined face and eyes for a second before he gave her his trademark grin. "I knew there was a reason I married you, I'm not against the idea at all. There's no doubt in my mind that he will succeed in both of the tasks we're giving him. I know it won't be easy but if he's anything like the two of us then I know he won't stop until he succeeds." Minato said with absolute confidence in his sons ability.

Kushina stared at her husband's face for a moment before she did the only she can do in the situation, she cried. Except she shed tears of joy, joy of having fallen in love with a man who would never doubt her abilities, never leave her, never questioned her actions even if results with one or both of them getting hurt. A man who save her from her despair as a child and made her feel like she could anything as long as he was by her side.

Kushina turned to their sleeping child and put her right hand on top of his small chest before closing her eyes. "Thank you, Minato. For making me your wife, for making me a mother and for everything else." She affectionately said with all her heart. She then felt a hand gently grasping on top of her own, she looked and saw it was Minato's; holding her as as they bid farewell to their son.

"No Kushina, it's me that should be thanking you, for making me this child's father and for helping me become Hokage. I couldn't have done any of those things without you at my side." He said as he proceed to execute the jutsu. "Now we should probably say our goodbyes to Naruto, we don't have much time left."

The Uzumaki then returned her eyes to her sleeping child, who sleept peacefully completely unaware and innocent of everything happening around him. "I love you Minato and..." Kushina sobbed harder trying to say her final words, "Goodbye Naruto. I'm sorry that we won't be there to protect you, to raise you, to be there with you but I'm leaving you with these words I always wanted to say to you the moment we first meet...I love you."

Minato also started to shed tears but kept his composure. "I love you too Kushina and.." He too closed his eyes and a small smile developed on his face with tears streaming down his face. "Goodbye Naruto. ..and like your mother I also wanted to say this...I'm sorry we won't be there for you but... I love you.." The Fourth Hokage then executed the jutsu. "...Now **Eight Sign Seal**."

Then everything was engulfed in a bright white light.

* * *

 **Well? What do you think? Come on people I need opinions, reactions, more opinions and everything else's people ask for. Just give me something!**

 **Anyway if you haven't notice everything will be in English and before I get reviews and PM saying I should stop writing. Let me remind you that this is my story! My story! My Rules! You got that! Got a problem with it then save yourself the effort and click to another story that fulfills your criteria. I won't pretend like I know Japanese (No offense to those that actually do know Japanese, you guys have my utmost respect for mastering such a difficult language) because I don't know jack shit besides the usual: Sensei, Senpai, Onii-chan, Arigato, Gomen, Baka, Teme, Ano, MY NAKAMA, sugoi,** **daijoubu** ' **OCHINCHIN** **and the all so famous DESU and KAWAII. So yeah basically all the easy shit everyone already knows from watching pretty much any Anime. And yeah I would go to the NarutoWiki and get my jutsu translation and other crap from there but that will take freaking long, go ahead call me lazy. I'll have to switch In between The wiki searching for whatever I'm looking for and writing it down. Yeah I'm not doing that. I have limited time to write this story and do my real world stuff so cut me some slack. I can honestly say that the only Japanese I'll be using are the honorifics or sulfixes (whatever the hell you want to call them). So yeah the –kun,-chan and all that good stuff. And before you guys call me out I actually researched how to use the honorifics/sulfixes property aight. I'm still ignorant on how I use them but atleast I can humbly admit that I'm 1% less ignorant, ignorant still but 1% less.**

 **Anyway if you're one of the people that skipped the top note and preceded to read and write an angry review saying how my story is shit then let me remind you that I'll be using some elements from Psycho G story, Sealed legacy. And before you accuse me of stealing I like to remind you that he gave me PERMISSION to use his ideas okay. Also I'll be using some other minor elements from other Anime. And when I say that I DON'T MEAN CHARACTERS OKAY. So no worries about this story having other people from other universes. We using Naruto-verse characters only.**

 **Also here's a spoiler that will no doubt cause half of you guys to lose interest In this story, click away and fill my Inbox with hate mail, death threats and other stuff like how I'm unoriginal and crap.**

 **This is NaruHina**

 **Are you guys still here? Okay let me continue that yes this will be NaruHina. And the reason for it will be posted on my bio page when I have the time and motivation to actually put something on it. And before you go "Oh my freaking god! another NaruHina story,what's wrong with these dumb narutards and this pairings! That's it time to teach this guy a lesson by writing a shitty review on how his story will be complete and utter Shiet. HAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahahahaha EAT SHIT TWINK XDXDXDXDXD" Let me tell you that yeah, you are right. this site is full of NaruHina stories and not the great ones either but once in awhile you'll encounter 1 or more that are just good, unfortunately I can't find alot of them. Although whether this fic could be consider "good" is up to you to decide.**

 **And another spoiler warning is that no, Naruto will not have the almighty Purple eye of our lord and savior Masashi Kishimoto aka Rinnegan. Don't mind that people write stories of him having it but I just don't feel like doing something I think is overuse. Yeah that's right the guy who is writing his first story as naruhina is saying the Rinnegan is overuse. Sue me. But also because I want to try something different.**

 **Anyway sorry for leaving such a long ass note but make sure to like, favorite, comment and subscribe if you want this story to continue. Also this is rated M for Mature for a good reason. And that reason starts with an L, and has an E and a N.**

 **It's language alright so please don't get triggered when you see the words like: Fuck, shit and whatever other profanity you see, ok?**

 **Oh and violence and blood. But not a crazy amount of blood or gore like some other people put in their stories. Basically if somebody gets stabbed then blood will come out, but not an entire fucking waterfall of it along with their organs.**

 **Anyway** **Peace!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yo!**

 **Didn't expect to see me again huh? Well it turns out people are interested in this so story so I decided to continue it. Well I was planning to continue it regardless but its was heartwarming to see people give this idea a chance.**

 **Disclaimer: Do you guys really want me to start every chapter with a dumb disclaimer saying that I don't own Naruto? The cash cow that is Naruto is own by Kishimoto and clown studio aka Studio Perriot.**

 **Thanks you Psycho G for letting me use elements from his story Sealed Legacy. Credit goes to him for giving me permission to write this story**

 **Update: Also welcome to the Updated Version of this Chapter. Looking back at it I did a half-assed job writing this chapter so i decided to make some changes and add some stuff along with some edits. I think I did a great job at editing this chapter. But some of you guys probably won't give a shit and will find an excuse to say something bad about it...oh well. Also this chapter is pretty damn long at 15k words. Not sure if you people consider that long but I do. Was debating with myself if I should have split it into 2 chapters but then I decided nah, you guys were probably waiting forever for an update so I didn't want to troll you guys. So yeah, sorry for the long ass chapter and update. Promise you this isn't useless or boring stuff.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 2. Conspiracy Theories about everything.**

It's been three days since the Nine-Tails attacked the Leaf. During that time the village was buzzing with activity. People were busy repairing the damage done to their homes, shops and other buildings, as well as mourning over the lost of their love ones who were either killed or die fighting the beast. In the end there wasn't a single person who didn't lose a family member, a friend or loved one during the attack.

But most noticeably people were greatly sadden over the loss of their hero, The Fourth Hokage. The man who sacrificed his life to save them from complete destruction, a man who will go down as the greatest hero and Hokage the Hidden Leaf ever had.

Currently sitting behind his desk, finishing the last of his paperwork, was the now reinstated Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. The man wore the traditional uniform of a Kage which consisted of a red kimono under a white haori and the Hokage Hat resting on his head.

The Third placed more tobacco in his pipe and lit it. Taking in a big puff of smoke he exhaled it out of his mouth, he's been smoking since sun rise and for good reason. The last three days have been hell for Hiruzen. Moments after the attack the populace of the village were cheering and praising the Fourth for stopping the Nine-Tails, but their cheering and praises were quickly halted when they learn that the Fourth sacrificed himself to do so. The day after that the Fire Daimyo and the Village council decided that Hiruzen should retake his position as Third Hokage until he can find another suitable successor to take his place again. And just yesterday the funeral for the Fourth, his wife and everyone else who either perish during the attack or died fighting was held.

To make things even worse he learned that his wife, Biwako, died as well but not from the Nine-Tails. No, he learned that she and everyone else who where assigned to protect the sealing chamber died from kunai strikes or broken necks. That only made Hiruzen's headache worsen as he quickly realized that this wasn't caused from some sealing malfunction, this was caused from someone who knew what he was doing, who wanted to use the Nine-Tails power to destroy The Leaf.

Hiruzen only knows one person that is capable of pulling such a feat and have a reason to target the Leaf. Hiruzen prays to the heavens and every diety he can name that it wasn't who he thinks it is, because if it was then that person's mere existance would prove to be a bigger threat than the power of the Nine-Tails. But even if it isn't that still doesn't change the fact that someone was strong enough to sneak into a highly guarded cave, killed all the ANBU, probably fought with Minato, kidnapped Kushina, released the strongest Tailed-Beast known to man and had the ability to control it.

Hiruzen just gave an exhausted sigh while he puffed a line of smoke and rubbed his eyes to try to stay awake. Thinking about all of this isn't helping one bit. Not to mentioned the long and tiring council meeting he just came from only added to his stress and tireness.

So yeah, Hiruzen has more than enough good reasons to be smoking this early in the morning.

Just as he finished reviewing the last of the damage reports he quickly sense a familiar chakra but decided to keep his gaze on the report in front and exhaled another puff of smoke. "I'm surprised you arrived this early, I wasn't expecting you till the day after tomorrow… Jiraiya."

"Well the message you sent said you needed to talk to me about some really urgent matters and the last time you sent something that required my immediate attention Orochimaru went rogue."

The Third Hokage turned in his chair to see one of his students sitting on the open window still. He was a tall man with spiky white hair that went down his mid back; two shoulder length bangs framing his face. Holding up his hair was a custom forehead protector with two small horns and the Kanji for 'oil' inscribed in the middle. He wore a red vest over a green gi with matching pants and a pair of wooden geta sandals. Red paint lines trailed down from under his eyes and went down to his cheeks.

It was Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin, Toad Sage of Mount Myboku, teacher to the Fourth Hokage and one the Third Hokage's former students.

Sarutobi just gave a tired sigh and returned to his paperwork, "Well as you can see the situation we're dealing with is much worse."

"Yeah I saw," Jiraiya said as he walked towards a seat in front of the desk and sat down. "I never thought I would see the village in such a state, it's almost like a natural disaster hit this place."

"You couldn't have been more right about that Jiraiya." Hiruzen said, causing Jiraiya to get a sadden look.

"So it's true huh," said the depressed Sannin. "I never thought Minato would go through with it. I mean I kinda knew he would knowing what kind of person he was I just… never imagined it would be so soon."

Hiruzen gave his student some time to recover from his grief, from what he knew Jiraiya looked at Minato like the son he never had. Having lost his wife Sarutobi can relate with his student, but there were pressing matters to attend to so he will mourn later. As Shinobi they can't afford to let their personal grievousness get in the way of their duties of protecting the village and its citizens. They both now have an idea how Tsunade felt when she lost both her lover and little brother to war, although the feeling wasn't as severe as her's.

"So, Sensei," Jiraiya said, looking like he came to terms with what happened. "What exactly did you want to talk about? Because I'm pretty sure you didn't just pulled me away from my spy network just to tell me the crappy news; and seen as you were smoking before I even got here, and before noon no less, makes me think that whatever the topic is must be extremely nerve wracking."

Puffing another cloud of smoke, Hiruzen ordered his ANBU guards to leave and activated his privacy seals. The old man then got up from his chair and walked towards the right of the room where a baby crib laid. "There's something I want you to see." Sarurobi said with seriousness in his voice.

Jiraiya didn't even noticed the baby crib been in the room but decided to ignore it as he got up and followed his teacher. He was curious to why he sent his guards away and activated his privacy seal but he didn't brought it up. When they reached the crib they looked down to see a blond baby with whisker shape birthmarks sleeping peacefully under a blue blanket. Jiraiya's eyes quickly widen when he saw the child.

"Is that...who I think it is." Jiraiya said with a shock and surprise.

Hiruzen nodded as picked up the sleeping child and adjusted him in his arms. "This is Naruto Uzumaki. Kushina's and Minato's son… and your godson. As well as the current container of the Nine-Tailed Fox."

"Wait, what?!" Jiraiya said out loud causing Naruto to start crying. "Did you just say container of the Nine-Tails!? Are telling me Minato turned his own son into a Jinchuuriki!? What the hell was he thinking?! Doing something as stupid as shoving a massive demon inside his own flesh and blood!" Jiraiya ranted as he tried to figured why his student went and turned his own son into something many people both hate and fear.

Hiruzen in the meantime tried calming Naruto by rocking him back and forth, after a minute the baby finally stopped his cries and went back to sleep. Hiruzen then gave a stern look to his student, causing the grown man to flinch and slighly squirm at the glare his teacher was giving him.

"I would appreciate if you could keep your tone down, Jiraiya. I feel the same way as you but you have to understand that Minato had no other choice, it was either him or his son along with the entire village. You should know that a decision like that wasn't easy, especially for Minato." He scolded his student with a commanding tone.

Jiraiya just looked down in shame after been scolded like he was a genin again. "I'm sorry Sarutobi-sensei, is that I'm just mad that Minato would do something like this. Then again I shouldn't be surprised he chosed his own son. How could he asked another parent to do something he wasn't able to himself?" Jiraiya then looked up at the sleeping child and sighed. "I always knew that kid was too noble for his own good, I'm surprised Kushina allowed him to do this."

"It's alright Jiraiya." The Third forgave his student. "Believe me I was surprised too. But this isn't the only reason why I summoned you."

The Toad Sage just raised a curious eyebrow. "Ok. So why did you called me?"

Hiruzen adjusted Naruto on his left arm and used his right hand to release a small amount of chakra on his stomach. The Eight Trigrams Sealing formula then manifested itself on the baby's navel. The seal looked completely identical to the one used on Kushina. Jiraiya just looked at it with a blank face like it was nothing to be surprised about.

"Hmmm I don't see what's wrong with it. The seal looks completely intact and functional. Minato always had a knack with sea-" Jiraiya stopped his compliments when another seal appeared right above the one holding the Nine-Tails. Imprinted right on the child's chest was the Uzumaki clan crest with sealing arrays and six magatama surrounding it. Jiraiya looked at the seal with surprised and curiosity. "Ok, now I'm confused. What is that?"

"It's a seal." Hiruzen plainly answered.

"I know that but what kind of seal is it?" Jiraiya answered back.

"I don't know." Hiruzen admitted. "I was trying to figured it myself but couldn't come up with anything since I'm no seal expert like you and Minato, so I was hoping you can tell me something about it."

The white haired man looked at the mysterious seal closely and tried to figure it himself. After analyzing it for a few seconds Jiraiya just sighed and came to a conclusion. "Yeah…I seriously don't know either."

"What? Are you telling me you don't know what kind of seal it is?" Sarutobi questioned.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Jiraiya confirmed with a nod. "In all my time as a seal master I never came across something like this before, hell I doubt Minato could figure this out and that kid surpassed me years ago."

"So there isn't anything you could tell me about it?" Hiruzen asked.

"Other than it's a seal and not a cool looking tattoo, no I'm sorry there isn't." Jiraiya concluded. "Usually when you create a seal you have a design with multiple layers surrounding it to support the structure. But this seal…" He pointed to the seal "…all you have is a basic design and that's it."

Hiruzen just gave another tired sigh "So you don't know either huh?" Seen his student shake his head, Sarutobi placed the baby back in the crib and puff out another cloud of smoke. "That's too bad I was hoping you could figure out the meaning behind it."

"Wait, you said 'you don't know either', are you telling me someone else tried to learned what the seal means?" Jiraiya inquired. "And also who gave Naruto that seal? You have to be a top-tier sealing master in order to make something that complex."

The Third just walked back behind his desk and sat down on his chair. He motion Jiraiya to take a seat in front which he did. "I'll answer both of those questions but first I'm going to tell you what really happened on the night of the Nine-Tails attack." He said in a serious tone and matter.

Jiraiya sat straight gave his Sensei his undivided attention, whenever his Sensei became this serious it was never a good idea to act like his usual self, he should know, he experience what would happen if he did. "Alright, I'm listening."

* * *

(flashback 3 days ago late at night)

Hiruzen ran to where he saw the explosion of the tailed beast detonated.

It was only a few minutes prior that he and the rest of the Leaf Shinobi where trying to push the Nine-Tails out of the village. The beast just suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the village and started attacking everything and everyone without warning. When Hiruzen realized what was happening he quickly got into his battle gear and gather his forces to try to stop the fox. Only in resulting with many of them dying without putting much of a scratch on the fox. After summoning the monkey king Enma and having him transform into his Adamantine staff form did Hiruzen manage to push the Tailed-Beast out of the village walls. Just after that a giant toad appeared above the fox and crushed it in place as soon as it tried gathering chakra for a tailed beast Bomb. The fox was only half way done before it disappeared along with its jutsu.

Now Hiruzen along with Enma started making their way to an open field where they saw the giant fox been restrained by large golden chains. In the middle they could see Kushina on her knees with golden chains coming of her back surrounding the area and restraining fox. Minato was right next to her holding what looks like a newborn baby.

Sarutobi tried to get closer but was block by an invisible wall, looking around he saw that the golden chains surrounded the area with an invisible barrier. Smacking the barrier using Emma's staff form only resulted in been ineffective.

"Minato! Kushina!" Sarutobi yelled only for him to be ignore. " _Dammit! they can't hear me because of this barrier!"_

Without anyway to communicate with them Hiruzen can only watch as Minato summoned a sealing alter and placed his son on it, after which he proceeded to execute some hand signs before ending it in a prayer stance.

"Hiruzen, those hand signs!" Enma remarked in his staff form. "Don't tell he's going to use _that_ jutsu!"

"Yes." Sarutobi solemnly confirmed. "It's the **Reaper Death Seal**. To think Minato would be driven to use that jutsu."

"We have to stop him before it's too late!"

"We can't do anything Enma." Hiruzen grimly stated . "Once you complete the necessary hand signs the Shinigami will take the user's soul regardless. If we were to stop him now then the only souls that the Shinigami will take is Minato's and not the Nine-Tails." The Third knew what the consequences where for using that jutsu when Minato taught it to him incase of a hopeless situation. He hoped neither of them would have to resort into using the jutsu regardless of the situation, but it seems Minato had no other choice but to resort to it in order to save the village.

Not been able to do anything both of them watched as the Nine-Tails shrunk in size; indicating half of it soul was taking already. Soon they witnessed the giant fox attempting to kill the sleeping child only to be intercepted by both parents resulting in both of them been impale by its massive claws.

" _Dammit!_ " Hiruzen cursed as he tighten his fist and gritted his teeth in frustration as he helplessly watched both parents sacrifice themselves for their son. " _It_ _should be me dying today, not the two of you._ "

Hiruzen and Enma then watched as Minato and Kushina started to talk about something but because of the barrier they couldn't make up what exactly they were saying to each other and they couldn't read lip to try and figure it out. After which both parents placed both of their hands on the sleeping child's stomach and everything was engulfed in a bright blinding light causing The Third Hokage to shield his eyes with his arms until the light completly faded away.

Lowering his arms and opening his eyes the old man noticed the barrier was gone along with the Demon fox. Kushina's and Minato's bodies laid right in the middle of the field right next to the alter.

"Minato! Kushina!" Hiruzen yelled as he quickly made his way over to them only to find the Fourth Hokage's dead body with a smile attached to his face. Kushina on the other hand was still alive but by the looks of it not for too long.

Kushina opened her eyes to see The Third kneeling down besides her. "Sarutobi …." She spoked in a haggard voice. "Please protect Naruto...he's the hero..Minato wants the village to acknowledged."

The Third nodded. "I will."

"Thank you.. and also… please tell Jiraiya-sensei…to help him… I gave Naruto… a seal…that will… unlock something..." Kushina coughed blood with every word she said. "...please. I know Jiraiya-sensei will succeed where... we failed."

"A seal?" Hiruzen asked. "What does it unlock?"

Kushina gave a small smile before closing her eyes.

"I don't know."

* * *

(Flashback over)

"So it's a key?" Jiraiya inquired with a raised eyebrow. "A key to what exactly?"

"Weren't you paying attention Jiraiya?" Sarutobi replied annoyingly. "I don't know and apparently neither did Kushina but she entrusted this key to Naruto for some reason and she assigned you to help him find out what it unlocks."

"Well regardless I gotta say Kushina is pretty talented if she made that seal." Rubbing his chin with his hand Jiraiya started thinking. "Well if she entrusted it to Naruto the moment before her death then that would mean she only trusts Naruto with it and not anyone else… talk about putting this much trust into your newborn kid." He said before turning to his Sensei. "Does anyone else know about this?"

Hiruzen shook his head. "No, besides you and me, no one else knows about the Key."

"Good, the last thing we need are people like Danzo finding out about it and start theorizing this key unlocks the power to destroy the world." Jiraiya said with a chuckle in the end. "Well if Kushina doesn't know what it unlocks I highly doubt Minato would know or if he even knew it existed at all, did either of them leave a note or something about it?"

"No," The Hokage answered. "Besides leaving their wills and house to Naruto, they didn't leave anything regarding the seal and before you ask, no. Their wills don't mention anything about the seal or its properties."

"They wrote their wills before dying?" The sage questioned.

The old man nodded and puffed another cloud of smoke. "Yes, apparently it was Minato's idea to do so days before the sealing. Kushina thought he was been paranoid about nothing but after been reminded that in the shinobi world things don't always go as plan she went along with his idea."

The Toad Sage sighed at his students paranoia, "That's Minato for you, always planning ahead even when the changes of something bad happening are low," Jiraiya muttered before smirking a bit. "Smart kid, I knew I taught him well. We can only assume they never hoped to have a use for their wills this early on."

The old man couldn't' help but silently agree with Minato's quick thinking. "Yes but Naruto won't have access to them until he becomes a genin. But we are getting off topic here." Hiruzen said as he returned his focus to the matter at hand. "We still don't know what this seal does or unlocks. Kushina's only family was her clan but there aren't that many of them left after their destruction and we don't know how many survivors there are or where they are. So unless we can find another Uzumaki that knows anything about the seal; you are going to have to figure something out." Sarutobi said before taking a deep breath after he finished talking for a long period of time.

The white haired man just nodded in agreement with his sensei's words. He blinked his eyes when he quickly realized something.

"Hey, wait a minute old man." Jiraiya annoyingly said. "Why do I have to do all the work here?"

"I can give you a few reasons Jiraiya." Hiruzen said as he pointed out his reasons with his fingers. "1: Kushina assigned it to you on her dying breath. 2: You are the boy's godfather so you have an obligation to be there for him. 3: You are the only Seal master we have in the village so you already have an idea of what you will be looking for. And fourth and finally... I'm the Hokage and far too old to be of much help outside the village"

Sarutobi took another deep breath before he continued. "But don't believe you are doing this alone Jiraiya, I will help in anyway I can as long as it is within my power to do so."

Jiraiya just waved away at his teachers worries. "Don't worry about it sensei. I never said I wasn't going to help the kid, I just wanted to see how you would react if I said something about it" He said before turning serious. "But im going to need a clue to where to start this...quest of mine."

"Like I told you before, I don't have any ideas at the moment." The Third answered. "But you probably shouldn't rush things. Im certain that whatever this seal unlocks won't be going anywhere any time soon."

"Yeah, you're probably right about that."Jiraiya stated before he stretched his arms out for a bit. "So... is that everything before I get to work on finding out what the seal unlocks?"

Hiruzen took another puff of smoke before breathing it out. He then looked at Jiraiya with his serious look again. "The Nine-Tails incident wasn't some sealing accident...it was orchestrated by someone." He stated.

"What!?" Jiraiya nearly shouted as he quickly got up from his seat in shock causing it to fall over. Thankfully the noise didn't wake Naruto up. "What do you mean 'orchestrated' by someone? Are you saying someone planned this whole thing?"

"That's exactly what I am saying Jiraiya." The Third answered back with utmost seriousness. "Minato and I planned for every possible outcome that could have happened during Kushina's final days of her pregnancy. But it would seem that even with all of our extra precautions someone still managed to get into that sealing chamber and managed to free The Nine-Tails. Not only that but he managed to get a hold on classified information regarding who the Leaf's jinchuuriki was and when she was expected to give birth. There is also the possibility that this person had to fend of Minato long enough to free the Nine-Tails. The reason on why I am telling you this now is because I want you to try and find out who this assailant was and see if it relates with the seal Naruto has." Hiruzen then took another batch of air to recover his breath from so much talking.

Jiraiya just stood there meditating on everything he has been told. This was way more than he expected to hear. Not only does he have to find information about the seal but also figure out who attacked The Leaf. But he just had to make sure of one thing.

"How do you know this whole thing was planned out by someone?" The sannin questioned before he narrowed his eyes. "And how could we be sure the kid's seal has anything to do with this?"

"Every single ANBU that was assigned to protect the chamber was killed," The old man responded. "Either by broken necks or kunai strikes, they all died... along with my wife and her assistant. As for how this can all relate to the seal I don't know, but it's safe to conclude that this person's objective was using the Nine-Tail's to destroy the Leaf. But that's just my theory."

Jiraiya just stood there again in silent thinking over everything again. After a minute has passed he picked up the down chair and put it back in place before sitting down on it. "I have to agree with you. If this person's objective was only the key then he would have just kidnap Kushina anyday besides the day she was do and force her to talk and not go through all the trouble of getting the Nine-Tails. But that doesn't mean we should be at ease." Jiraiya stated.

Hiruzen put in more tobacco in is pipe and lit it up. It seems not not even smoking his favorite tobacco is helping him calm his nerves. He took in a big drag and let out another cloud of smoke. "Agree, but there is an important detail I forgot to mention... The Nine-Tails was summoned here, in the middle of the village, it didn't just walked in through the front gate."

"Great, more bad news." Jiraiya muttered frustratingly. "Just spare me the details old man."

Hiruzen didn't say anything but silently agreed with his student. This whole thing was just one giant mess after another but what he had to say was important. "Like I said, The Nine-Tails was summoned here in the middle of the Village, and if it was summoned here th-"

"Then that would mean it was been controlled via summoning jutsu." Jiraiya cut in but now he's regretting it after he realize the implications of his words. "The only people I know who are capable of controlling the strongest of the Tailed-beast are The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju and..." The man's eyes widen in sudden realization and slight fear. "...Madara Uchiha."

When Jiraiya said that name the whole room went dead silent. The only sound that could be heard is baby Naruto's breathing in its sleep. Jiraiya's heart almost skipped a beat of what this could mean.

"This can't be right..." The Toad Sage utter in complete shock and denial. "...Madara Uchiha is dead! There is no way in hell he can still be alive, he would have to be over a hundred by now!"

The thought of Madara Uchiha still a being alive is even more terrifying than the thought of having to fight The Nine-Tails itself. Jiraiya only heard stories from his sensei in his youth about the kind of power Madara possessed. A man so strong and powerful that there was only person who was capable of defeating him; The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. If that man was still alive then it would cause even the strongest shinobi to shake in fear at the thought of having to face him.

"Do not underestimate that man's abilities, Jiraiya." Sarutobi warned his student. As even in his prime Hiruzen knew he wouldn't be able to give a monster like Madara a challenge. "He was the only Shinobi who had the right to call himself Hashirama's equal, achieving something like immortality wouldn't be impossible for a man like him. But even so it still might not be him but another. That's just my assumption but it doesn't make things any less worrying."

"Great," Jiraiya muttered frustratingly. "Not only do I have to figure what the seal does and what it unlocks but also figure out if the person who attacked the Leaf has any connections to it." The white-haired man can already feel a headache starting to develope. He started rubbing his eyes in an attemp to calm himself a bit. "Even if it wasn't Madara, who I highly doubt is still alive, it doesnt change the fact that there is someone else out there who can control the Nine-Tails."

The Hokage rubbed his goatee and humed in thought. "While we don't have any leads on who exacly was responsible we can take an educated guess." The Third then looked at his student directly in the eye. "The Uchiha Clan."

Jiraiya sat up right and quickly understood where his teacher was going. "That's right..." He said to himself. "The Sharingan is said to have the ability to control The Nine-Tails along with the first's Wood Style Jutsu. But Madara was said to be the only Uchiha in history to have been able to do that and the Wood Style died with The first Hokage. So that would mean-"

"That it might not have been Madara at all," Sarutobi finished for his student. They both relaxed a bit when they realized that Madara might actually be dead for good. "But another Uchiha with the same ability as him. But the question is, which one? The Uchiha consists of about 500 members, a third of which are currently serving as the Leafs Police force."

The toad sage shrugged his shoulders in response. "Don't have a clue who it might have been but that's preety bold of you to blame an entire clan just for the actions of one of its members." Jiraiya said with a bit of disappointment. "Never thought you were capable of that."

"I'm not putting their entire clan responsible for this incident." The Third reassured. "But considering how The Uchiha have been living on the outskirts of the village for the past few decades, and not been a member of the Shinobi Council, I wouldn't be surprised if one of their members has had enough and decided to take action."

It might be true that the Second Hokage gave the Uchiha Clan control of the Leaf's Police Force but because of that they were denied a vote on the shinobi council. It was made that way because the Second Hokage feared it would give the clan far too much power.

"But even so the Uchiha have also lost members during the attack so it wouldn't make sense to attack the village along with killing their own clansmen." The Hokage said before rubbing his forehead and sighing in frustration. "Talking about this seems to only make things even more complicated than they already are. We have more questions than answers."

"Then let's stop talking and get to work old man." Jiraiya responded as got up and walked towards the window. "You can find out if one of the Uchiha was responsible for this mess while I'll try to find some answers on the kid's seal."

"Where are you going Jiraiya?" The Hokage asked as he turned to his student. "We still have more to talk about."

The man stopped just before he was about to jump out the open window. "Kushina said she wanted me to help the kid right?" He could sense his Sensei nodding his head. "Well you can start breathing easily old man, because as the kid's godfather I'll be taking responsibility to whatever this seal leads to. I failed to protect my student when he needed me the most but I won't fail his wife who put her faith in me." Jiraiya said with determination.

"Don't blame yourself for what happened Jiraiya." Sarutobi said with regret in his voice before looking slightly down in shame. "No one could have predicted this outcome. If anyone should be taking the blame it should be me for not been there to help Minato with the sealing. If I did this mess would have been avoidable."

"Don't put the entire blame on yourself old man, if anything we both should take some blame but sitting around doing nothing and feeling regret about it won't help anybody." The sage said before shaking his head and dismissing the thought. "Anyway I'll be going to The Village Hidden in the Whirlpools, just from the design alone something tells me it's from the Uzumaki clan and what better way of finding out than going to Kushina's former homeland to investigate. So yeah, see ya like in two days or so." And just like that Jiraiya jumped out and left.

With his student gone the Hokage deactivated his privacy seals and went back to doing one of the main reasons why he had retired, Paperwork. He continued to work until he heard a knock on the door.

"Enter," Hiruzen called out without taking his eyes of the papers. The visitor opened the door and walked into the office. The person made his way until he stopped in front of the Hokage's desk. "What can I help you with... Danzo."

Sarutobi then looked up to see the only person who ever competed with him for the Hokage position and one of his personal advisors, Danzo Shimura. The man had black shaggy hair and wore a white shirt underneath a black robe that cover his right and went down to his feet. His most noticeable features were his x-shape scar on his chin and bandages covering his forehead and right eye.

"Hiruzen..." The man said as he open his squinted left eye. "...We need to talk."

The Hokage just sigh and opened his desk cabinet in search for more tobacco. He has a feeling he'll need it for later. "Alright...what you do want to talk about?"

* * *

(A few hours later)

Jiraiya arrived at the Land of Whirlpools just a few hours ago and started making his way towards the Hidden Whirlpool Village. It was relatively easy getting there considering the island nation was a few miles of the coast of The Land of Fire. As he made his way towards the Hidden Whirlpool Village he remembered how the Village was before its destruction. Both the Village and Country were ruled by the Uzumaki clan, a clan distantly related to the Senju. A clan that was well known for its top quality seals, seal masters, and every member possessing high amounts of chakra and longevity. It was also said that the village was founded even before the Leaf, but the Uzumaki decided to give Hashirama and Madara the credit of building the first Ninja Village. Nobody knows why the Uzumaki decided to do that but nobody really questioned the action.

From what Jiraiya knows The Hidden Whirlpool Village was a very isolated village and country, only keeping to themselves and their only ally; The Hidden Leaf and The Land of Fire. They were never involved in The Leaf's foreign affairs and refused to fight with them when asked to during the First Great Ninja War. But regardless they still kept a close relationship with the Leaf, so much so the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, married one of the daughters of the Uzumaki clan leader, Mito Uzumaki and made it law for all Leaf Ninja to wear the Uzumaki crest on their uniforms as a sign of friendship.

As Jiraiya saw the ruined gates of the destroyed village he also couldn't help but remember how and why it was destroyed.

It was during the Second Great Ninja war that the surrounding countries saw the Uzumaki Seal masters as a threat to them that they decided to destroy them. At the time the Leaf couldn't do much because it was fighting the same villages on all sides of its borders, so support from them was very limited. But by the time they finally got to the Whirlpool Village it was already destroyed with all of its clan members either dead or spread around the Elemental Continent seeking refuge. Kushina was considered lucky to have already been in The Leaf before the war started but not so much as she was chosen to be the next vessel for the Nine-Tails after the previous vessel, Mito Uzumaki, was reaching her end.

But there was one thing about the Uzumaki Clan that greatly bother Jiraiya. The Clan never cared about fame or been recognized as a powerful clan. Them giving the whole credit to Hashirama and Madara for establishing the first shinobi village was prove of that. The Uzumaki Clan never bothered or invaded any other nation, The Land of Whirlpools didn't have anything the other nations could benefit from. In terms of strength The Uzumaki didn't really stand out above The Senju or Uchiha, they were mostly recognized for their powerful seals and talented seal masters. Even Kushina told him and Minato that her clan's only unique traits were their seals, seal masters, longevity, life force and red hair.

" _So why would the other nations view the Uzumaki as a threat to them? No way a couple of Seal Masters pose a big enough threat that it would justify destroying them."_ The white haired man shook his head and dismissed the thought as he finally set foot inside the destroyed village.

" _This place could definitely use some repairs._ " Jiraiya thought as he looked around the destroyed village. It was almost an exact replica of the Hidden Leaf back home except with every building and home either burned to the ground or destroyed with some plants and other vegetations covering most of them. " _Well considering it was said to have been the first_ _village_ _built I wouldn't put it pass the First Hokage to build the Hidden Leaf based of this one._ "

As he looked around he noticed that the Uzumaki swirl could be seen almost everywhere he went. It was on every store, building, and every establishment had at least one swirl printed on them.

"This clan sure loves to use that swirl of theirs…" Jiraiya commented as he brought his hands up to form a cross sign. "Alright, **Shadow Clone Jutsu!** "

Five identical clones of the man appeared in clouds of smoke and gathered around the original.

"Alright you got your orders, find anything that could relate to the seal Kushina gave to her kid and report it back, got it?" The real one ordered.

All of the clones couldn't help but roll their eyes. "You mean besides the fact that the design is literally everywhere." One of the clones said sarcastically.

"Hey don't talk back at me!" The real Jiraiya retorted. "Anyway go search the place up, if I have to stare anymore at my handsome mug I might have to retire as a writer and become a model."

Giving their boss a smirk all the clones went to different parts of the village and searched for anything that could help him. The real Jiraiya also went to searched but started at the most unexpected place…the bathhouse. He figured that whatever the seal unlocks it would have to be something big and very special. And if it where him hiding something like that he would hide it somewhere people would least expect but also should have seen coming.

Entering one of the ruined bathhouses Jiraiya quickly went to men's section and stared his searched. He looked around for a few minutes before he felt his clones memories come back to him, they all had the same results.

"Those damn clones…." The man groaned annoyingly after seeing the clones memories. "Should have known they would all searched the bathhouses like me… but what was that?"

He might have been annoyed and angry at his clones (and himself) but what they found was very interesting. They all discovered the same thing: a hidden seal hidden behind a rock on the ceiling... at the woman's section of the bathhouse.

Smiling and giggling like a school girl a blushing Jiraiya made his way towards the women's section and searched. After a minute he found the same seal his clones did on the same place… behind a rock right above the ceiling. The seal looks almost identical to on Naruto has on his chest.

"Never in a million years would I have imagined that my favorite spot for research would also be the same spot to whatever the kid's seal would unlock." Jiraiya said before giving of a perveted smile and giggle. "Minato my boy you sure know how to pick them, seems like the Uzumaki where secret perverts just like yours truly."

After having his little moment, Jiraiya jumped up the ceiling, placed his hand on the seal and focused some chakra. The seal then glowed for a moment before spinning outwards and stopping. The room then started to shake a little before the back wall started lowering itself, revealing a hidden stairway leading downwards.

"Interesting." Jiraiya said as he jumped back to the ground and made his way towards the stairway, torches were placed on both sides of the walls but none of them were lit so it was completely dark all the way down. "Now I'm dying to see what that key unlocks."

Getting a torch Jiraiya lit it and started making his way down. He descended down the steps for a few minutes before quickly realizing that whatever was hidden down must have been hundreds of feet underground. The stairs almost seem endless and Jiraiya started sweeting from the heat of been so far underground.

"Damn…how far... do these…stairs go?" Jiraiya panted as he brushed the sweat from his face and continued going down. "This heat will kill me before my curiosity does."

Luckily for him his question was quickly answered when he finally reached the bottom of the stairway after a few extra minutes of climbing down. When he reached the bottom the Sage dropped the torch in shock at what he saw. His eyes and mouth widen in complete shock and awed. At the bottom was a giant dome shape room with more unlit torches and more stairs leading upwards, probably to the other bathhouses. The ceiling had illuminating green crystals to give the room some light. But that wasn't what caught the Sannin's attention. It was the massive concrete gate at the other side of the dome shape room that caught Jiraiya's eye.

The massive gate was probably about 100 meters tall and about 20 meters wide; probably a few feet thick by the looks of it. The gate itself had extremely complex seals inscribed on both doors. Seals that Jiraiya couldn't even make out let alone understand. In the middle of the gate laid a giant Uzumaki swirl along with magatama at the bottom. The magatama were arranged in three rows of three totaling nine magatamas. Six human-sized circles were drawn on the floor in front of the gate, all of them connecting to the seals inscribed on it.

"Holy shit…." Jiraiya muttered in complete and utter shock as he made made his way towards the massive gate. "What the hell…why would the Uzumaki build something like this and hide it underground? Kushina, just what in the hell does that key unlock and why did you assigned me to find out."

He placed his hand on the gate but instantly withdrew it. "Damn it…" Jiraiya cursed as he waved his hand, trying to wave away the icy pain he felt from touching the gate. "Stupid thing is cold like an iceberg from hell, but why? It's underground and what was that feeling?"

The feeling Jiraiya felt when he touched the wall felt very familiar, like he recognized it from some where but can't remember exactly from where. Deciding to ignore it for now he walked towards the gate again and tried to push it open while and at the same time trying to ignore the icy cold and strange feeling the gate was giving. Jiraiya continued to push for a few seconds before giving up, mainly because the freezing cold was starting to get to him. But even so the gate didn't moved an inch.

Deciding to to try and open it another way Jiraiya jumped a few meters back from the gate and raised his right hand. Focusing chakra into it a bright blue spinning orb of chakra manifested on his right hand.

" _Alright, let's hope this doesn't backfire on me...or kill me."_ The toad sage thought before charging in towards the gate at great speed. Once he was in front of it he raised his hand and pushed forward his jutsu. " **Rasengan!** "

The jutsu collided with the massive gate causing a shock wave of chakra to spark around the point of impact. Jiraiya held his ground and continued to pushed his **Rasengan** forward in hopes of something happening. After a few more seconds of struggling the jutsu exploded causing Jiraiya to be blown away from the gates and landing on the ground in a loud thud.

"Ouch...shouldn't have done that." Jiraiya painfully mutter with his back on the ground. He got up to a sitting position to take a look at his work. The gate looked completely unaffected from his jutsu, it didn't leave so much as scratch or anything. Looking down at his right hand the man sighed in relief at the sight of his appendage still being there. Besides a few light burns on his hand, the ringing noise in his head from the explosion and dirty clothes, Jiraiya was still in mint condition.

Getting up to dust of some of the dirt on his clothes the man then looked back at the gate for a minute before returning his eyes on the magatama patterns that laid on the middle. Walking towards the gate again he started thinking once more.

"I know I've seen those before…but from where?" The sage said as he tried to come up with an answer before snapping his fingers in realization. "Of course! They would know."

Gathering the necessary amount of chakra Jiraiya then performed some hand signs before he slamed his hand on the ground. " **Summoning Jutsu!** "

A cloud of smoke appeared before been blown away to reveal two small elderly toads.

"Jiraiya-chan!" The first toad acknowledged. He was green with thick eyebrows and white hair resembling a mohawk. He was wearing a gray cape. "Why did you summoned us and where in the world are we? It's too damn hot! Also why are you dirty? Did you get yourself in some trouble with the ladies again?"

"Yeah why did you summoned us and in the middle of me making dinner too!" The second toad angrily voiced out and by the voice it was clearly a female. She was the same size as the first except purple, her head resembling a broccoli. She was also wearing a cape but hers was black. "I was making my special worm soup with extra larva and flies. Do you have any idea how long it took me to make that!? This better be important or else!"

They are the two great sage toads of Mount Myoboku, as well as Jiraiya's teachers; Fukasaku and Shima.

Fighting the urge to vomit at the thought of eating bugs again, Jiraiya quickly composed himself. "I apologize Ma and Pa but there is a reason why I summoned you today, because of this." He pointed his finger at the gate. "Can you to tell me anything about it."

Both toads hopped around to look at the gate and gasped when they saw it.

"I-It can't be!" Shima stuttered in shock. "T-Those are-"

"Yes, they are ma." Fukasaku finished for her, perfectly knowing what they are. "There's no doubt about it…those of are the markings of The Sage."

"Wait!" Jiraiya interrupted loudly and pointed at the seals. "You've seen those before?! But where?! When!? And what do they mean?! And what's behind that gate!?" Jiraiya rapidly questioned but because he was in a cave it echoed loudly all around them.

Both toads hopped and bonked Jiraiya hard on the head before shouting "Keep your mouth shut you brat and let us explain before you give us a headache!" And hopped back down on the ground.

Jiraiya carrased the two big bumps that formed on the back of his head. " _But I wasn't even shouting and its you guys that are going to give me a headache."_ he thought painfully.

Fukasaku then cleared his throat before explaining. "Ahem...To answer your questions, yes we have seen those strange markings before. They where the symbol of the father of all Shinobi. The Sage of The Six Paths."

Jiraiya's eyes quickly widen and his mouth open in shock when he heard that name. "W-what!" he stuttered but this time quietly. "The Sage of The Six Paths! But how and why are his markings written on that gate?"

"We can't answered those questions, Jiraiya-chan." Shima answered honestly. "Mainly because when don't know anything else besides them been related to The Sage."

The man closed his mouth but kept his eyes widened at the gate. When the two toads mentioned The Sage of Six Paths his mind went back to the Second Shinobi War where he encountered and trained a red-haired orphaned boy with purple ringed eyes along with his friends. He always believed the Sage of the Sixth Paths was nothing more than a myth but after the Second Shinobi War his doubts quickly decrease. But now after what the two toad sages just told him he now truly believes such a man existed long ago.

"Just what the hell did you give Naruto…Kushina." Jiraiya whispered quitely but load enough for the toads to hear.

Both toads raised an eyebrow at that statement.

"What does Kushina-chan have to with this, Jiraiya-chan?" Shima asked.

Jiraiya then explained what happened during the past few days. He mentioned everything, the Nine-Tails breaking free, Minato sacrificing himself to save the village and finally the mysterious seal Kushina gave to Naruto before her death. He aslo told them the posibility of somebody being responsible for all of it but doesn't know who, and how he went to the Hidden Whirlpool Village to find answers. He also told them how he tried opening the gates and how he almost blow himself up in the process. Both toad sages scolded Jiraiya for attempting something stupid but were glad he didn't blow up. They didn't miss the fact that during the whole conversation the gate was giving of a strange but familiar feeling but they didn't voice it out. In the end both sages listened at the rest of the story without interruption. Before long Jiraiya finished his explenations.

"I see, never would have I imagined any of that." Fukasaku stated with a thoughtful look. "To think Kushina-chan had something like that in her possession." He then turned to look back at the gate. "You mentioned something about the gate giving of a familiar sensation, right?

"That's right." Jiraiya answered. "When you touch the gate it gives off that strange aura I told you about."

"Alright let me see." Fukasaku went towards the gate and place his hand on it. Just like Jiraiya mentioned the gate is indeed cold but only slightly if not bearly noticeable, that wierd feeling his student mentioned wasn't foreign to him at all. "Ma, can you place your hand on the wall as well."

Shima nodded as she too went in front of the wall to place her hand on it. She gasped when she felt the same thing her husband felt. "This is-"

"Yes, it is." Pa said, confirming his suspicions. "It's Nature Energy. This gate is giving off a large amount of Nature Energy. But why?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't make any sense, Pa." Shima stated as she looked at her husband, both of their hands still on the wall. "Objects shouldn't be giving off this amount of Natural Energy but this gate is letting out an almost endless supply of it."

The other toad nodded in agreement. "Yes, it truly is abnormal."

"Uhmmm, guys." The only human in the room said, gaining both sages attention. It almost felt like they forgot Jiraiya was there in the cave with them. "Can you guys tell me what you were talking about?"

"Oh sorry about that Jiraiya-chan." Fukasaku apologized as he and his wife took their hands of the wall to face Jiraiya. "But as you heard this gate is giving an unnatural amount of Nature Chakra. We can't come up with an explanation on why it is but what I can say is that the wierd sensation you felt must have been it."

"But why didn't you guys freeze when you were holding it for that amount of time?" Jiraiya questioned. "When I tried pushing it open the damn thing almost gave me frostbite."

"Maybe it's because unlike humans we animals are more accustomed to having large amounts of Natural Energy inside our bodies." Shima answered. "That cold feeling you felt must have been the Nature Chakra been forced into your body. If it were anyone else they would have been turned to stone, but luckily you have experience with Nature Chakra been inside you since you too are a sage so your body didn't turned to stone instantaneously."

Jiraiya gulped when he heard he could have been turned to stone. "Yeah...real lucky." He muttered to himself.

"That would also explained why your jutsu didn't have an effect on it." Fukasaku mentioned. "Since if you have a large object that gives off that amount of Nature Energy you basically have an indestructible shield."

"That makes sense and all but we still don't know what's inside that damn gate." Jiraiya retorted, trying to get some answers. "Or why the Uzumaki built it only to hide it underground."

"Like we said before Jiraiya-chan, all we know is that the symbols are The Sage's mark, nothing more." Fukasaku responded. "All we know right now is what we've learned, that this has to do with The Sage of The Six Paths and clearly the Uzumaki Clan."

"But we shouldn't be that surprised though." Shima said gaining Jiraiya's attention. "After all the Uzumaki clan are also descendants of The Sage of The Six Paths along with the Senju and Uchiha clans."

"Wait, are you saying the Senju and Uchiha have something to do with this?" Jiraiya inquired, thinking back to the possible relation this might have with the one responsible for the Nine-Tails attack.

Fukasaku shook his head. "We don't really know. We just know those clans originated with The Sage and the Uzumaki been relatives to the Senju." He then looked back at the gate. "You mentioned Kushina-chan gave Naruto some sort of key with the exact same writings right?"

"Yeah." The perv nodded.

Shima looked at her husband suspiciously. "Pa you aren't thinking abo-"

"Yes I am." Fukasaku cut her off again. "It would be wise if w-" He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before been slap by his wife. "Ma!" He exclaimed rubbing his reddened cheek. "Why'd you slap me?"

"Don't interrupt me again you old geezer." Shima threatened with a glare. She then coughed and started again. "Ahem, anyway like I was saying, you aren't thinking about asking him were you?"

Still rubbing his burning cheek Fukasaku nodded. "Yes I was. If there's anyone who knows anything about The Sage it would be him."

"Huh.." Jiraiya decided to butt in. "Who are you talking about? Does someone else know about The Sage of the Sixth Paths? If I'm right the Sage died like a couple thousand years ago. Who could have live that long and still be alive?" He questioned.

Feeling the pain of his cheek receding Fukasaku lowered his hand and nodded. "Yes Jiraiya-chan. You are right in that the Sage did died a few thousand years ago but the one I'm speaking off is one of the few that have ever meet The Sage of The Six paths and lived long enough to tell about it." Fukasaku answered.

Now Jiraiya was curious. "Okay, who is it?"

Both toads answered. "The Great Toad Sage."

* * *

(Mount Myoboku)

"Ahhh, so you've returned." An old voice said. "Uhmm….Who are you again?"

Jiraiya face planted on the floor. He along with Fukasaku and Shima arrived at the land of toads just a few minutes ago to talk to the eldest of all toads. The Great Toad Sage: Gamamaru. After they arrived they quickly made their way towards his home where he was sitting on his throne, almost like he was expecting them.

The Great Toad sage was a giant brown toad who had a white belly. He wore a professor's hat with tassels and an orb on top of it. He also wears a necklace with the kanji for "oil" on it. The Great Toad Sage looks like the very definition of a sage: Old and wise.

"You senile old fart!" Shima insulted. "Don't you remember Jiraiya? The one who you gave the prediction about the Child of Prophecy."

"Ma! Don't call the Great Toad Sage a senile old fart!" Fukasaku interjected. "Remember why we came here. To ask him about The Sage."

"Now now." The oldest toad intervened. "Spouses shouldn't be fighting like this…" He looked at the still face planted Jiraiya and smiled. "Ahhhh, it's you… ehhh... who are you again?"

"Jiraiya!" Both small toads yelled.

"Ah yes, I remember now." The giant brown toad said with a smile. "The one who will lead the child who will either save or destroy this world."

Jiraiya quickly got up and got on one knee. "Lord Elder, I need your wisdom and knowledge to tell me about something I found extremely troubling." He respectfully requested.

The massive toad open his squinted eyes and looked at Jiraiya carefully. "What is it you need to know, Jiraiya-chan."

Jiraiya told him everything he has learned up until now. Fukasaku and Shima also added to the conversation, after a few minutes they told all they can. The great elder sat there meditating about everything he's was told.

"Hmmm…..do you have this key with you." The elder asked.

Jiraiya nodded "Yes, if you want I can bring it-"

"No! That won't be necessarily, Jiraiya-chan." The great sage interrupted. "I can tell you only this…I have met the Sage of the Six Paths." Everyone in the room quickly widen their eyes in shock at the revelation and the confirmation that the Sage existed. "We were both in our youth when we first meet but we only interacted for a short period of time. I'm afraid I don't know nor do I remember anything about him mentioning a gate with his markings. I'm sorry Jiraiya-chan."

Jiraiya just sighed, looks like another dead end. "Thank you, lord elder." He stood up and walked towards the exit. "I'll be taking my leave now."

"Wait Jiraiya! I neglected to tell you about the vision I had about you." The Great toad said causing everyone to look back at him with shocked looks. "This vision greatly involves you along with others, it is of great importance."

"And you're just telling us that now!?" The Husband-Wife toad duo yelled.

Going back to his original spot, Jiraiya knelt down again. "Another prophecy?" He asked. "Does it involve the child I'm supposed to help guide this world to peace or destruction?"

"Yes and no." Seen the confused looks everyone was giving him Gamamaru elaborated. "The vision involves you along with all of your students you have taught over the years. There is no longer a child of prophecy but children who will guide this world to its salvation or destruction."

"All of my students?" Jiraiya questioned with confused tone before frowning. "But...I have no more students"

"Yes you do, students who you either guided in the past or will be guided by you in the future. Whether you taught them as students or just gave them everyday advice these children will be the true bringers for the world's salvation or destruction." Gamamaru answered with wisdom. "All of them will have something in common. Whether it be their goals, ideals, blood or reasons to live and kill. They will all have something that they all share. But amongst all of them two in particular will stand out above all the rest."

"Who?" Jiraiya questioned.

"Two individuals born with The Will of the Supreme King." The Great Toad answered. "Two kings who have known suffering in their early years of life. Who have been through great amounts of pain. These kings know the world for what it is and will do anything and everything to change it, for better or for worse. The first king's mind is clouded with lies and betrayal from those he cares deeply so his judgment is based on what he'd experienced but his heart never waiver from his original purpose, to fight and protect. The second king has two hearts; one shiny gold and one darkened black. His mind is split on what heart he should follow but nevertheless his mind will be well equipped to make the right decision based on all the knowledge he has gained. In time both kings will solve both of their individual dilemmas, the first will rid his mind of the lies and betrayal he experienced and will either see the light or the dark. The second will decide on which heart to follow and will finally be at peace with himself with that decision. In time both kings will be left to make an important decision that will have grave repercussions." Gamamaru then frowned grimly. "But before they can reach such a decision they will have to travel different paths from eachother, both paths lead to the same end but the paths they'd chosen couldn't be anymore different from one another. Whatever path they take is neither the correct or wrong one, the decisions they will make are their own, no one else's. And that is all I saw." The elder toad finished.

Everyone stayed quite after the Great Toad sage finished to think about what they've just heard.

"The Will of the Supreme King?" Fukasaku muttered questionably, he knows he heard that from somewhere but can't exactly remember from where. "One king with two hearts and the other who's mind is clouded with lies and betrayal?"

"What could that mean?" Shima asked before looking at The Giant Toad. "Is there anymore you can tell us?"

Gamamaru shook his head. "Im afraid that's all I saw. Whatever happens next is up to them... and you too, Jiraiya." Said man looked up to see the giant toad smilling at the man. "Remember that you too will play an important role whether it be big or small, you will have an impact on the lives of many whether it be directly or indirectly. Whether it be through your teachings, words, actions or the books you've written; everything will all come back to you in some way." Gamamaru said in all his wisdom.

Jiraiya returned his eyes to the floor and stayed on his kneeling position. He reviewed everything the Great Elder told him for a couple of seconds. Before long he got up and bowed. "Thank you Elder for your time."

Turning around Jiraiya made his way towards the exit. He's got to head back to the Leaf to discussed everything he has learned with Sarutobi.

Gamamaru smiled and waved goodbye to the man. "Goodbye and come again ehhh….who was that again?"

* * *

(Hidden Leaf, 1 day later)

Jiraiya came back like he promised he would, two days later. He quickly went over to his sensei's office and asked for him to put on privacy seals and dismiss his ANBU guards to discuss what he learned so far.

"So that's what the key opens up." Sarutobi said as he puffed another cloud of smoke. "To think the Uzumaki guarded a secret relating to The Sage of The Six Paths…this truly is disturbing." He placed his pipe down on his desk and reviewed everything his student learned and told him. This was way more than he had expected to hear. Out of everything he thought what the key might lead to he never once thought it would lead to something conected to The Sage of The Sixth Paths. "We should keep quite about this Jiraiya. Tell nobody about this, not a single soul." Hiruzen said with the utmost seriousness.

"But what about Naruto?" Jiraiya asked, thinking of what this could mean for his godson. "The kid just lost his parents and now has to carry the burden of been a jinchuuriki and holder of this key. This is way too much for a baby to have to shoulder."

Hiruzen sighed. "Don't worry we will eventually tell him everything we learned along with his heritage. Hopefully till that time comes the boy could grow up to be a normal child." He said with some shame.

Just minutes after Jiraiya left for Whirlpool Hiruzen announced the reason on how the Nine-Tails was defeated. Unfortunately not a lot of people viewed Naruto as the Hero the Fourth Hokage and his wife wanted to be. People and Shinobi alike were already screaming for the boy's death seconds after he made the announcement, but The Third was quick to respond by declaring a law that if anyone were to tell the younger generation about the Nine-Tails or even mentioned it in public; they will be executed without a second thought.

"Yeah, you really screwed up by making that move Sarutobi-Sensei." Jiraiya argued before chuckling a bit. "I just hope it doesn't come back to bite you in the ass."

Picking up his pipe and putting it back in his mouth, Sarutobi nodded. "Well I am getting old and a crisis of this magnitute clouds my judgment." He said before taking in a big drag of tobacco and exhaling. "By the way Jiraiya what are you going to do now? Will you go back working with your spy network or are you going to stay here and watch over Naruto?"

Jiraiya just sat there and thought about it. There were so many factors that effected so many things including the safety of his student's son. Not to mention the fact that he has to figure out what the Great Toad Sage meant by his students been the key to everything and two of them having 'The Will of the Supreme King'. He also knows that leaving his godson alone could have some serious repercussion in the future but leaving his spy network unmanaged could lead to the other villages attacking the Leaf in its weakened state. He knows that leaving Naruto alone could lead him into becoming a resentful and hateful person if he's treated as the same way as most jinchuuriki are.

" _Yeah we can't have that happening, and I can't just take the kid with me. If I did it'll make my job more difficult and that kind of life won't be good for the kid._ " After thinking long and hard about it he came to a decision. Looking at his Sensei with fire reflecting of his eyes, Jiraiya answered. "Who said I can't do both?"

"Jiraiya I understand you want to help Minato's son but you have to think this through." The Hokage tried to reason but was secretly happy with his student's decision. "Your spy network is vital to The Leaf's security and you are the only one who knows how to manage it. Without it the other villages would have already attacked us in our weakened state, you can't raised Naruto and manage your spy network at the same time."

"I said I will do both didn't I." Jiraiya said with coviction as got up and put his hands on the desk. He gave his sensei a hard but determined stare. "When you took me in to be your student, people, mainly Tsunade and Orochimaru, said that even with your help I'll still be a hopeless, weak and pathethic pervert; I'm now the strongest of The Legendary Sannin and the world's only super pervert. When some said that's there's now way in hell a clanless shinobi like Minato can ever be Hokage, I trained that brat till he dropped to the ground; he became the youngest and strongest Hokage the Leaf has ever had. When people read my first book and told me to give up writing; I said fuck you and wrote one of the most popular and successfull book series this damn country has ever known…"

" _And one of the most perverted_." Hiruzen thought with a hidden blush.

"….when Tsunade said she can never return my feelings because her only love was Dan, I never waiver. I still gave her nothing but love and I'll wait forever until she returns it. When my dream is to bring peace to this hate filled world you can bet your old ass I won't stop till I achieve it or die trying. So when both Kushina and Minato entrusted their kid's safetly and wellbeing to me… you might as well quit smoking right now if you don't believe I'll fulfilled their dying wish. You always love to brag about 'The Will of Fire', the will to protect others, well I'm showing you my Will of Fire right now goddammit!" Jiraiya declared before looking down and tightening his fist. "I've already failed alot of people in the past but I won't failed those two who put their absolute faith and trust in me. I promised myself I won't fail them... not this time."

Silence filled the Hokage's office when Jiraiya finished his speech. Hiruzen can honestly say that he'd never seen Jiraiya so determined to do something that wasn't "researching". It's almost like he's the student and Jiraiya the teacher. It's almost scary how much he reminds him of his senseis: The First and Second Hokage.

" _The Will of Fire indeed."_ Hiruzen thought with a proud smile. After thinking about it for a while the Hokage smiled and nodded. "Alright, I'll allowed it, you can raise Naruto if you really want to."

Jiraiya quickly raised his head and looked at the old man before he blinked. "Wait, you're serious?" He asked dumbfounded.

"Yes. Why?" The Hokage asked with a raised eyebrow. "Wasn't that the whole point of your speech? To convince me into letting you take care of Naruto?"

The white haired man just gave a slight chuckle as he smiled sheepisly and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah it was but you see... to be honest I wasn't really expecting it to work. I was half expecting you to say no."

Hiruzen just smacked his face with his hand at seen his student's behavior. " _Never mind. He's still the same old fool as always…just older._ "

"Anyway.." Jiraiya said, returning back to his seat. "I won't be with the kid everyday, just long enough for him to stand on his own two feet."

"Please tell me you don't mean that literally." Sarutobi said.

"Of course not." The toad sage clarified. "Just long enough till he graduates the academy. And since I'll be managing my spy network at the same time that will probably give me enough time to visit him...let's say the weekends."

"Only the weekends?" Sarutobi questioned. "That's hardly anytime to raise a boy, Jiraiya."

"I know I know."Jiraiya defended. "But like you said my spy network is important and without it the village is endanger of been attacked and if the village is endangered then so is Naruto. If the other villages find out who his parents are or what he holds, they'll almost be willing to kill him for what his father did to get revenge, or steal the key or worse the Nine-Tails."

The Third could almost feel another headache coming in if that happened. "Alright, so you'll stop by to check on Naruto during the weekends till he graduates and still manage your network, after that then what?" He asked his student.

"I'll take him to the gate." Jiraiya told his sensei with hard stare. "We still don't know whether or not the person who attacked the village was after the Nine-Tails or the key, but one thing is certain is that it must be connected in some way. So after the kid had enough time being a ninja I'll take him and find out what Kushina died protecting." He then stood up and walked towards the baby crib in the room. Seen Naruto wide awake and looking up at him made Jiraiya smiled a bit. "Besides it's a godfathers duty to look after his godson, whether I'm only there for a few days or a few hours, I'll be there for the kid."

Happy with his answer and reason, Sarutobi smiled. "Well…" Hiruzen said as he went back to doing what he was doing before Jiraiya arrived, smoking his pipe and reading his favorite orange book. "I have no objections. I wish you the best of luck Jiraiya, I'll help in any way possible."

"Thanks and you can start by not smoking near him." The Sannin frowned at his teacher. "Don't want to take care of a baby and a dying old man because he over smoked."

Sarutobi gave an amusing chuckle at that. "I can tell already tell you will do a fine job raising him, just make sure you don't create another super pervert. Dealing with one of you peeping at the woman's bathhouse is stressful enough but with two…" the old man groaned and can already feel the future paperwork and headaches. "...I think I'll just retire and hand over the hat to Danzo."

"Speaking of Danzo. Didn't you said he wanted to talked to you about something after I left." Jiraiya asked.

Hiruzen nodded. "Yes he did. It would seem that he too has the same idea as us...that the Uchiha might have something to do with the Nine-Tails attack."

"I'm surprised he didn't proposed to have custody over Naruto." Jiraiya said. From what he knows Danzo is the type to use any means necessary to make The Leaf the strongest in the Elemental Continent, even if it means using a child to fulfill his goal. The man is also aware of the elder been in charge of the ANBU program The Foundation or Root along with his training regiments of turning shinobi into emotionless killers.

"So he's on our side or what?" Jiraiya asked.

"Not necessarily," Hiruzen explained while still reading his orange book. "I just played ignorant during the whole time but I'm sure he wasn't buying it. While I told Danzo about the possibility of someone been responsible he was quick to accuse the Uchiha Clan for this disaster. Whatever the case may be he too will be looking out for whoever did this and will be reporting his findings to me. As for Naruto, you shouldn't worry about Danzo trying to get a hold of him. After the attack he proposed to the Council to give him legal custody over the Jinchuuriki to train him to be the Leaf's weapon. Luckily the entire Council outvoted him and with you now taking responsibility over him Danzo pretty much has no chance of getting what he wants."

"Well that's good news for once." Jiraiya sighed in relief, glad he made the right decision of taking care of Naruto. He doesn't want to know what would have happen to the kid if Danzo got a hold on him. "We now have one less thing to worry about."

"And we will have even one less if you don't create another you in the village." Hiruzen sternly expressed before giggling pervetedly and blushing when he reached a certain part of his book. "This village doesn't need anymore perverts running around in it. The village already has enough perverts as it is."

Jiraiya just laugh as he picked up the wide awake Naruto, causing the baby to smile and giggle.

"No need to worry about that..." The Toad sage said before he shudder slightly in fear. "Kushina would castrate me in the afterlife if she found out I raised a pervert." The sage said fearfully before he gave a perverted giggle. "No I think I will wait till the kid is older so I can "enlighten" and help him appreciate the beauty of women."

Sarutobi just kept his eyes on his book and exhaled another cloud of smoke. "Not sure if that's a good or bad thing but don't involve me in any of your shenanigans. Just remember raising a child is no easy task."

Jiraiya just wave his worries away and smiled at his innocent godson who smiled back. "Don't worry about it. How hard can raising one little brat be?" The sage questioned.

Baby Naruto smiled at Jiraiya before grabbing a fist full of his white hair and pulled it down, causing the man to screamed in pain and the baby to laugh loudly.

"Dammit kid don't do that!" Jiraiya painfully scolded, trying to release his godson's grip on his hair but it seemed to have the opposite effect as Naruto's gripped tighten and the pulled on his hair was even harder. The blond baby continued to laugh harder at his godfather's increasing pain. "And don't laugh at me or else you'll get a good spanking!"

Hiruzen laugh at the sight of his student struggling to get the baby to release the hold on his hair. "Hahaha not as easy it seems huh Jiraiya?" He asked with an amusing chuckle. "Think you can handle him?"

The Sannin turned to his sensei who was still laughing at him. "Yeah of course I can." He painfully replied with a smile while still trying to get his hair free from the blond babies tight grip. "Like I said, how hard can raising one little kid be?"

* * *

(Few months later)

"Why did I say that back then, this is way harder than I originally thought." Was all Jiraiya said as looked for Naruto in his new temporary apartment. He was able to keep his promise by visiting his godson on the weekends and still manage his intelligence network. During that time Hiruzen had his most trustworthy people, those who don't bare a grudge against Naruto, to look after the child while Jiraiya was out. Things went smoothly for a while except that Jiraiya quickly learned that the boy may look like Minato but he had the energy and attitude of Kushina. That certainly wasn't making things any easier.

"Where are you? you little brat." Jiraiya muttered. Now he was looking around his apartment for his godson. He didn't know how but Jiraiya left Naruto on his baby chair playing with his toys for one minute to go to the bathroom and the next when he came back the kid was gone. The only reason why the Sannin wasn't freaking out was because this was a common occurrence. He would leave the room to get some food or do something and the kid would just wonder on his own.

"That kid just doesn't know how to sit still." The man said still looking for his godson. " _Maybe shadow clones would come in handy next time._ "

Jiraiya then went to the kitchen and found the little blond baby waddling around in his orange onesie. It has been about a few days since the baby started taking his first steps and it has already started making Jiraiya's job of finding him much harder.

Jiraiya pointed at Naruto and scowled. "There you are you little misfit!"

The baby turned around and smiled at the sight of his godfather. "Ba,ba,ba,ba" Naruto babble as he waddle his way towards him so fast he tripped and almsot fell on his face but luckily Jiraiya caught him before he did.

"Damn kid you really are just like your mother, impatient and clumsy." Jiraiya said as he carried Naruto back to the living room. At first Jiraiya was slightly nervous about his decision, never having raised a child before in his life. Sure he viewed Minato like a son but that was when he was training him and at that time Minato was old enough to things by himself. This time things were different.

This time he was looking out for a baby who should be like a grandson to him but had more energy than he know what to do with it. The kid just wouldn't stay still, tries putting anything he grabs in his mouth almost choking on it if it wasn't for Jiraiya or one of the nurses been there to stop him. He also somehow climbs over anything he can mantle almost resulting with him falling if it wasn't for Jiraiya or one of the nurses been there to catch him.

Not to mention the iron grip the kid has whenever he pulls on his and only his hair. The kid never tries to pull any of the nurses hair. Jiraiya took that as a sign that Naruto likes his hair or that he just loves causing him more pain.

The Sannin just gave a frustrated sigh as he finally made his way towards the living room and put Naruto in his play pen. "I'm going to get grey hairs if this keeps up….." He blinked and thought about that. "Oh wait, I already have white hair."

Baby Naruto just giggle at the sight of his godfather making his thinking face.

The Toad Sage looked down at the baby who was still laughing at him and scowled. "Hey! don't laught at me, I know I'm old but I'm can still kick some serious ass and make women fall head over heels for me …" He then got into a kabuki pose and started dancing. "For I am the great and powerful Jiraiya-sama! Men tremble in fear at the sight of me and women run towards me with the desire to feast at my devilish good looks." Jiraiya chanted and continued his introduction dance. "The man who has captured the hearts and bodies of hundreds of beautiful maidens and has battle the mightiest of villians shows no fear to anyone or anything! Especially towards a brat like you! It is yours truly, the one and only, Jiraiya-sama the mighty Gallent!" Jiraiya then finished with a dramatic pose and stance.

After he finished he looked to see Naruto looking at him completely bored and disinterested. "Ba?" The baby asked.

Jiraiya sat crossed legged and watched his godson looking at him with unblinking blue eyes. After a few seconds Jiraiya sighed. "You know you could at least pretend to like my introductions." He said before smiling at Naruto. "I'll make sure you love them so much you'll be begging me to write you your own awesome introductory speech."

"Ba?" Baby Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "Baba?"

"Yeah that's right your grandpa knows how to write good speeches. How else do you think Sarutobi-Sensei gave me permission to look out for you, that or he probably wants an exclusive on my new book." Jiraiya said before blushing and giggling pervetedly. "Oh its to bad I can't use you as a chick magnet, I would if it wasn't for the fact that I promised myself I wouldn't use a baby to get me babes. I want those young beauties falling for me not you."

"Ba?"

"Don't worry kid you'll have plenty of opportunities to go researching with me when you're older." Jiraiya said before slightly shuddering in fear. "Just not now you're too young. Don't want to face the wrath of Kushina in the afterlife or worse...Tsunade. If she ever finds out I tried to 'corrupt' a baby then..." Jiraiya decided not to finish that sentence. He doesn't want to know or even imagine what Tsunade would do to him. The memories of the beating she gave him when he peep at her in the hot-springs are still giving him nightmares "...yeah."

"Ba?"

"Oh that's right I haven't told you about Tsunade, huh?" Jiraiya moved a bit closer so that he sat right next to the playpen and in front of his godson. Naruto leaned over a little so he can listen to another one of his godfather's stories, even he can't really understand him. "Alright time for another story about Grandpa's past. Alright this all started when I graduated the academy... the day I first meet Tsunade..."

Jiraiya then proceeded to talk about how he meet Tsunade and his other teammate, Orochimaru. He talked about all of his fun, wild and crazy adventures he had with them growing up, even if he over exaggerated some parts. He talked about all the things Sarutobi taught them over the years as their sensei. He even mentioned how, when every time he was tied to a stump for doing something stupid, Sarutobi and him would go do some "research" afterwards. He didn't just limit to his genin years, he also talked about his travels and the many different types of people he'd meet on the way.

He even talked about the times he spent training Minato and Kushina.

Naruto in the meanwhile paid absolute attention to his godfather's story telling, completely intrigued with everything his godfather tells him, even if he can't understand most of it. He laughs whenever Jiraiya laughs. He thinks whenever Jiraiya is in his thinking pose. He does whatever Jiraiya does whenever he tells a story. This always happens during story time, Naruto imitating his godfather's actions, but nonetheless Naruto always listens and has the most fun whenever he's with Jiraiya and Jiraiya likewise also has fun, mainly because he now has someone who doesn't mind listening to his stories.

Just when Jiraiya was getting to the "juicy" part of one of his stories a cloud of smoke suddenly exploded in the room causing the baby to start crying at the loud noise it made. Jiraiya quickly grabbed the now crying Naruto and got to a fighting stance, ready to defend him, but relaxed and put him back in his playpen after he saw it was a black and orange scroll toad.

"Jiraiya-sama! Thank goodness I found you." The toad exclaimed.

"Yeah, Gerotora-san." The man acknowledged annoyingly while the baby kept crying in the background. "What is it? Can't you see I'm taking care of Naruto." He montioned to the still crying Naruto.

The toad then looked at the crying toddler and quickly bowed his head. "I am terribly sorry Jiraiya-sama. But I forgot to give you something of great importance, something from the Fourth Hokage."

"Minato gave you something." Jiraiya quickly turned serious and tried his hardest to ignore to the kids cries. "What is it?"

Gerotora then extending himself to reveal a scroll. He unfolded it to show complex sealing formulas. "It's the key to **The Eight Sign Seal**."

Jiraiya looked at the key with interest before finally realizing the reason his student gave it to him.

" _He wants Naruto to learn how to utilize the Nine-Tails chakra, but why?_ " He thought to himself before frowning. " _It seems you knew something I didn't but what, Minato?_ " Things only seem to get harder and more complicated for the Toad Sage.

"Alright." Jiraiya nodded. "You can give it me."

Gerotora nodded and closed the scoll. Then, without warning, jumped right inside Jiraiya's mouth. Jiraiya struggle and tried his best not to throw up during the process. Eventually he swallowed Gerotora whole then hunched over to try and get the feeling of throwing up out of his system.

"Dammit Gerotora." He quitely cursed the toad as he put a hand over his mouth. "Next time warn me when you're going to do something like that."

His displeasure and discomfort was quickly washed away when he heard uncontrollable laughter. Jiraiya turned to look at his own godson who was no longer crying but laughing at his misfortune instead.

"Hey!" Jiraiya exclaimed before he narrowed his eyes. "It's not funny."

But Naruto kept on laughing, completely ignoring the glare his godfather was giving him.

Jiraiya then heard a knock on the door and went to go answered it. But just before he left the room he created a Shadow clone.

"Keep an eye on the kid would ya." He told his clone who just nodded. "Oh and make sure he doesn't try to get away or do something dumb."

The clone just rolled his eyes. "I think I candle keeping the kid from doing something reckless unlike you."

" _What's with these damn clones._ " The real Jiraiya thought to himself before shrugging it off. " _Well I guess it can't be help, they are me after all_."

"Whatever I'll check who's at the door." With that the Sannin left the room and opened the front door to see one of the nurses assigned to take care of Naruto when he wasn't around. She was an attractive brunette with black eyes wearing a nice nurse's outfit showcasing her rather large chest and cleavage.

"Well well, what do we have here." Jiraya lecherously said with a perveted smile. "And what can the great and powerful Jiraiya-sama help you with miss?"

If there is one good thing coming out of this situation is the fact that all the nurses his sensei assigned to take care of his godson were all young and very attractive. It's amazing that these beautiful young women don't hold Naruto responsible for the Nine-Tails attack or view him as the beast itself like the majority of the villagers. Whatever the case may be Jiraiya can't help but envy his godson's fortune and should probably thank his sensei in the future.

The nurse just gave an annoying growl at the man. "Well you can start by not asking that to me or my colleagues everytime we come, Jiraiya- _sama."_ She said before becoming serious. "I'm here to relieve you of babysitting duties."

The super pervert just sigh, today was Sunday thus it's also the last day he can spend time with his godson until the next weekend. During the past months he'd really gotten attached to his godson and vice versa. It's gotten to the point were he even started visiting during the weekdays to make sure the kid doesn't cause the nurses taking care of him to develope headaches or gray hairs or worse wrinkles.

At least that's what he keeps telling himself.

But whenever Jiraiya randomly shows up Naruto would just get ecstatic at the sight of his godfather. The kid would always pay attention whenever he talks about random stuff like the tales about his past or about the women he 'researches', even if it results with him getting beat on the head and scolded by one of the attractive nurses for trying to corrupt an innocent baby. But whatever the topic the kid always pays attention and laughs along with him.

Jiraiya knows that it could get in the way of managing his spy network but thankfully the other villages aren't attempting anything on the Leaf in its weakened state. Nor has Orochimaru showed up to do anything. So he uses that excuse to ditch his work and spend more time with Naruto, something The Hokage says is an unnecessary risk.

"Alright." Jiraiya said with neutral tone before he turned and walked to the living room. "I'll tell the kid that I'll be leaving now."

When he arrived to the room he saw his clone playing with baby Naruto along with some small toads his clone probably summoned. When the clone looked at him he automatically knew that it's time to leave just by looking at his boss's face, Naruto in the other hand just kept trying to catch one of the hopping toads.

"Time to go huh?" The clone asked at which his boss nodded. The clone sighed. "... Well let's go before the kid starts tearing up, I don't think we can handle another teary goodbye."

The clone along with the toads popped in a cloud of smoke leaving the real Jiraiya and Naruto alone. The baby looked at his godfather and can tell by the look on his face that he'll be leaving again. Naruto started whimpering and tearing up.

"Hey," The toad sage said as he knelt in front of Naruto and place a hand on his head, ruffling his blond hair. He gave his godson a warm smile. "I'll be back before you know it okay kiddo. You just have to endure it for a while, after all that's what been a Shinobi means; to endure great hardships and getting right back up whenever you're down. You've done it before many times and you can do it again."

Sadly his speech had little effect as Naruto started crying loudly, trying to persuade Jiraiya to stay. Jiraiya got to his feet and turned to walk towards the door, trying his best to ignore his godson's cries.

"Papa! Papa!" The baby cried, trying to reach for Jiraiya with his arms. But because he was inside the playpen he couldn't go far. "Papa! Papa!"

Jiraiya stopped just before he was about to leave the room to turn to look at Naruto for the last time. He gave him a small reassuring smile. "Dont worry kid. I'll be back, no way in hell I'll ever abandon you." He told him.

Naruto stopped his crying for a split second to hear him say that before he went back to crying. Jiraiya turned and left the room to search for the nurse, trying his best to ignore his godson's cries.

When he found the nurse she was in the kitchen preparing some food for Naruto. She turned to him and gave him a sad smile.

"You know you can stay a little while longer if you want Jiraiya-sama." The nurse said as she saw the white hair man walking towards her. "You know the boy will miss you dearly and it would be easier on me if you stayed until he falls asleep."

The man just shook his head and gave the nurse a sad smile. "No, that would just be a cruel thing to do, better he knows I left with the intention of coming back than have him waking up believing I abandoned him. As much as I want to stay I'm afraid duty calls." He said before blushing and giggling pervetedly. "Or are you saying that because you want me to stay here with you, I gotta say that's rather selfish of you trying to keep me here longer than your other friends."

The nurse just snorted in response and crossed her arms over her busty chest. "Not in your life you damn pervert, now leave before I kick you out."

Jiraiya blinked. "But...this is my apartment."

"Well my shift to take care of your godson has started and I won't be able to work efficiently with you around." The nurse argued.

"Alright alright." The perv said. "Just take good care of him will ya."

"Don't worry I will." The nurse nodded. "Just get back before he cries himself a river."

"Missing me already huh?" The Toad sage said with wiggling eyebrows and a perverted smile. "You know if you want me that bad all you have to do is ask. I don't mind you sharing me with your other friends."

"GET OUT NOW YOU DAMN PERVERT!" She furiously yelled, almost ready to kick the perv out herself.

With that Jiraiya left the apartment and started making his way towards the village gates. The sun was just starting to set on the horizon. Just when Jiraiya passed through the the gates he smiled slighlty and thought about his godson who was probably still crying about him leaving again.

" _You just have to endure it for a while...son_." Was his final though before leaving the village, already missing his blond kid. A small tear ran down his smilling face as he got further away from the village and from Naruto.

* * *

 **There you go my peeps. Chapter 2. Told ya it'll be long.**

 **Please like, favorite, subscribe, comment and follow if you want to read more.**

 **As you read Jiraiya will be playing a big role but what role I can't say because it would spoil the whole story.**

 **Or give away the meaning behind the swirl. Pun intended.**

 **Anyway please leave me your thoughts about this idea and if you're liking it so far. Also please don't leave the typical "Your grammar and punctuation is shit and ass and so are you Twink." First of all thank you for the review and second of all yeah I know. Tell Me what you like about the story and what you want to see. I already have most of the story planned out in my head now I just need to type it out. So Don't get your hopes up about me changing it. Also please don't get mad if this story doesn't end up the way you wanted it to be.**

 **Anyway se ya next week or whenever the next chapter gets put up. Not sure if this will be weekly but regardless I will be updating. Reminder that nothing makes me more happy than seen your reviews. Also spoiler alert the next chapter won't involve baby Naruto.**

 **Thank you Psycho G for letting me use some elements from Sealed Legacy, for which this story was strongly inspired from.**

 **Anyway Peace!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yo!**

 **Did ya miss me?**

 **No? Well damn I thought people would be happy to see me again. Anyway enough with the chit-chat. So let's get with procedure shall we; Life's been a bitch, school's been a bitch, my Ipad is been a bitch, my phone is been a bitch, work has been hell, this Presidential Election has been reduce to a meme war, writing stuff has never been any harder, I've gone days without eating, days without sleeping, I can't even find simple pleasure in….you know, and last but not least reading fanfics and watching anime no longer brings me joy. Pretty pathetic right?**

 **Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating but some of those reasons are true.**

 **Anyhow I'll do my best to make sure this doesn't happen again, but I can't make any promises.**

 **Disclaimer: Friendly reminder that Twink(me) doesn't own Naruto. The madman known as Masashi Kishimoto does and he is probably making money for it unlike me(Twink).**

 **Thanks to Psycho G for letting me use some elements from his story Sealed Legacy for this fic. This story was heavily inspired by his.**

 **Also I revised the first 2 chapters. Just go back and reread them if you want to, overall plot hasn't** **change.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: So far**

(Seven years Later)

Hiding up high in the branches of a tree and a nearby hot-spring, Jiraiya stared intensely through his binoculars at the sight before him, not blinking a single eye or making a sound. A dozen of beautiful young women were relaxing and enjoying the hot waters of the spring, without any of them knowing someone was peeping at them and taking notes of them and their bodies. The pervert wrote more notes on his notepad when he saw more women getting out of the water, unknowingly exposing their beautiful bodies to the Sannin.

" _Yes! Yes! That's the stuff!_ " The man thought with a blush and slight nosebleed as he wrote more details on his notepad. As much as he wants to giggle he knows better than to exposed himself, so he continued to watched intensely in silent, he is a spymaster after all and some of those women were kunoichi, something Jiraiya knows could end badly for him if he gets discovered. His blush and nosebleed only intensify when he saw some of the women's breast floating when they lower their bodies in the water.

" _HOLY HELL YES!_ " Jiraiya screamed ecstatically in his head as he wrote down everything in great vigor. _"If this keeps up I might have enough material for two sequels! Oh how I wish Sarutobi-Sensei could be here to enjoy this with me._ " He thought with a perverted grin. The times he spent with Hiruzen 'researching' had been some of the greatest he ever had in his genin years. Unfortunately those times didn't last long because shortly after Biwako found out and harshly scolded him for doing something so shameful, and with his student no less.

From what his sensei told him Biwako also gave him a beating that would have made Tsunade proud, after that Sarutobi never peeped with his student ever again.

" _But hopefully I can share those moments with someone else._ " Jiraiya thought as his mind went to his godson. He stopped writing and lower his binoculars as he recall all that has happened. " _It's already been seven years huh?_ "

Seven years since Jiraiya decided to take care of Naruto and so far the only regret he has is not been able to spend more time with him. He still visits during the weekends like he promised and sometimes even spends entire weeks with the kid. During the time the two of them would do all sorts of activities together. They would go out to do whatever they want (as long as it wasn't anything like peeping on women like he is now) like going to eat Ichiraku Ramen to talk about either Jiraiya's travels like they did when he was a baby or talked about Naruto's latest prank on the villagers, or spending time outside and walking around the village while trying to find something to do or talk about.

If it weren't for the fact that the two aren't related people would have mistaken them for father and son.

But whatever they end up doing Jiraiya knows that Naruto is never bored and has the most fun whenever he's with him; Jiraiya likewise feels the exact same. But even still it pains Jiraiya to have to leave his godson alone till the next weekend. He told the kid about his work and how important it is for the village. That because of his duty as the Leaf's only spy master and source of information outside the Land of Fire that he has to be constantly on the move and alert for whatever possible threats that posed to the village. So the only times he has to visit are the weekends and maybe, if nothing happens, an entire week.

Luckily Naruto was quick to understand, something he wasn't expecting from a kid his age, especially when he looked like Minato and acted like Kushina.

Jiraiya's face gave a depressed expresion at that. Ever since he told him he wasn't his real parent Naruto kept asking questions about who they were or at least their names. The kid didn't seem care that they weren't actually related. He told Jiraiya that because he took care of him most of the time and that he treats him like family that it would only make sense to treat and view him like family as well, or at least like a grandfather. Jiraiya was happy and overjoyed when he heard that.

But even so Naruto was persistent in finding out who his real parents were. He asked Jiraiya numerous questions like _"What were they like? What are their names? Where are they? What kind of people were they? What were they to you? Did they loved me?"_

Jiraiya's heart ached a little when he remembered those times. So much so he stopped focusing on the girls to moved his eyes and head towards the direction of his home, the Hidden Leaf.

He remembered the kid kept asking and asking about his parents, trying everything to get some answers from him. In the end Jiraiya gave in, mainly because he couldn't stand the look of sadness and betrayal his godson kept giving him when he asked about his parents.

Jiraiya gave a small ironic smirk at that. He always believed a shinobi should be able to endure whatever hardships life throws at them, even emotional hardships. But during those times he wasn't a Shinobi, just a man taking care of a boy he views as a grandson.

He didn't tell Naruto the whole truth but he wasn't lying either. He told him that his parents did loved him and that they died as heroes defending the village from the Nine-Tailed Fox seven years ago. That his parents were once students of his when they were younger and that they entrusted him with his safety moments before their deaths.

When he told Naruto that the kid just stood there emotionless. Not knowing how to react learning his parents died. When the realization finally hit him he teared up until he cried like he never did before. The only comfort Jiraiya was able to give was a fatherly hug, a hug Naruto returned without hesitation as he continued to cry on his shoulder.

After that Jiraiya told him stories about his parents and told him the kind of people they were. He was careful not to give out specifics like their names, appearances or other details that would suggest that his father was the Fourth Hokage or that his mother was from a shinobi clan, but Naruto didn't seemed to have noticed those missing details or didn't really cared about them. He promised Naruto that he would tell him more in the future but the kid respectfully declined such information. Naruto told him that he was happy to know that his parents didn't abandoned him and that they did loved him, so much that they gave their lives for him. He told Jiraiya that he wasn't going to let it put him down from achieving his goals and dreams and that he was going to make his parents proud of him.

Even though Naruto was six and a half when he was told about his parents, just a few months ago, he demonstrated strength and determination others didn't have.

Jiraiya smiled at that. " _Just like a true Ninja_."

Returning his attention back the hot-springs Jiraiya saw that all the girls have already left. He slightly cursed himself for getting distracted with the past but he was more angry with the fact that he was getting angry over something that shouldn't take priority over his godson's wellbeing.

Reviewing his notes and seeing has enough material Jiraiya put his notes and binoculars away before stealthily jumping of the tree and onto the ground. He went to the based of the tree to pick up his scroll he left leaning on the tree. After grabbing it and adjusting it on his back he started walking towards the direction he was staring off before, The Hidden Leaf Village.

As he walked Jiraiya stretched his arms out and yawn. He never knew thinking about the past seven years, moments after doing research, would tired out his mind.

" _Just hope the kid didn't do anything stupid while I was away._ " Jiraiya thought as continued making his way towards the village. He gave one more loud yawn in his hand before smiling at the thought of seeing his godson again. " _Kid is already a handful the way he is…just hope he didn't give Sarutobi-Sensei another headache or more wrinkles_."

Just as he thought of that he also remembered about what him and his sensei talked about seven years ago. During the years Jiraiya did everything he could to try to learn anything he can about the key Naruto has and the gate which it opens. He even went back to Land of Whirlpools and to The Whirlpool village several times to get what little information he could find. He searched the entire village and country up and down but couldn't find a single clue to help him figure out what was on the other side of the gate. Reviewing the key only proved to be a waste of time since he couldn't figure out a thing from it except that it supposedly opens the gate.

He even searched through all of the bathhouses and still found nothing.

But while he didn't find anything relating to the key or gate he did find something that could either help him or make things harder.

He wasn't the only visiting the village.

It all happened one day when he was searching around the village that he stumble across barely noticeable footprints; footprints leading towards one of the many entrances to the gate. There were also signs of a camp and fire that seemed to have been put out a few hours ago. When he realized the trail was still warm Jiraiya quickly summoned a group of Shadow Clones and sent them searching for whoever it was that made camp there. While the clones searched the real one immediately made his way to the underground gate to see if anything changed only to find that the gate was still close and without any sign of it been tampered with. When his clones all sent him their memories of their founding's they all had the same results; nothing. Whoever it was that was in the destroyed village seemed to have already left long before Jiraiya even arrived, leaving The Toad Sage with even more questions than before.

When he investigated the footprints they seemed to have belonged to single person, a lone tall male. When he reported his findings to Hiruzen they came up with three possible suspects.

Orochimaru was one of three that came to mind, but after remembering the type of person he was Jiraiya knew the snake sannin wasn't careless enough to leave any sort of evidence of his presence. But Hiruzen argued that one of Orichimaru's goal is to learn every jutsu and forbidden jutsu in the world, so sealing jutsu would fit that category. But there wasn't any evidence hinting the gate is storing any jutsus. Also sealing jutsus didn't seem like something Orochimaru would be crazy about.

So while the possibility of Orochimaru been one of the intruders is plausible the lack of evidence doesn't fully support it.

So that left another suspect; The one responsible for the Nine-Tails attack. Jiraiya and Hiruzen agreed that it seems very likely to have been the same culprit, but the dates of both events happening are too far apart to have any real correlation with each other. Besides they don't even know who was responsible for the attack let alone know if they are connected to the gate.

So until they find out who released the Nine-Tails they'll remain open to the idea of the person having some connections.

So that left the final and least likely possibility; someone they've never meet but is connected or is apart of the Uzumaki Clan. Jiraiya and Hiruzen were a bit skeptical about it being an Uzumaki. Because if it was an Uzumaki then they would have already visited the Leaf Village and seeked refuge. Hell they would have visited the Leaf long before the Nine-Tails attack to helped Kushina with the sealing and open the gate afterwards. The fact that they didn't makes them believe that this person either didn't know about Kushina having the key, is waiting for something or has an ulterior motive. But if is was an Uzumaki then they should have knowledge of the key and what is behind the gate, since they know the gate exists and how to reach it. Knowledge that Jiraiya, and to an extent Naruto, needs. But even so the possibility of an Uzumaki been involve is there since the clan isn't extinct but scatter throughout the Elemental Continent. Also adding the fact that none of them migrated to the Leaf Village after their destruction is a bit suspicious if not alarming.

So while the idea of an Uzumaki been involve is not impossible they might never know until the mystery person shows himself.

But whoever it was that visited the Whirlpool Village that day they may never know. The next time Jiraiya visited there was no sign of anyone been there. Either the person hid the evidence of their presence or they stopped visiting. Jiraiya also stopped visiting the island nation since he pretty much searched every part of the village and country and found nothing so there was no point in returning. Whoever it might have been if they intend to open the gate then it would be easier for them to just go to the Hidden leaf and seek help. After all Naruto has the key and if they want it they will have to confront Jiraiya.

But even so many questions still lingers inside the sannin's head.

 _"If it really was an Uzumaki then why doesn't he just go to the Village they were closely allied with for help? What reason does this person have not to trust us? But what if it was Orochimaru or the one who released the Nine-Tails? But what if it's neither of them?"_ Jiraiya put a hand over his forehead and let out a small groaned in frustration. " _Dammit, t_ _his is getting even more complicated the more I think about it. Kushina this better be worth all the grey hairs and wrinkles I'm getting."_

Jiraiya shook his head to try and put that aside for now. He doesn't want to be stress out when visiting his godson. After walking for a few more minutes Jiraiya finally saw the gates of his home, The Village Hidden in the Leaves.

"Finally." Jiraiya sighed as he walked towards the tollbooth to greet the guards, who were busy playing cards and ignoring his presence. The sage gave them a blank stare as the two continued to play cards and ignore him. "Yo! Kotetsu, Izumo. How's guard duty working for ya? Must be pretty easy if you two are busy playing and neglecting your duties." He said sarcastically.

Both chunin froze when they heard Jiraiya's voice. They slowly turned to look at the Sannin standing in front of the booth with a blank look.

"Jiraiya-sama!" They both exclaimed in surprise before quickly putting away the cards. They stood up and bowed in respect. "We apologize for neglecting our duties sir and for not noticing you! Please forgive us!"

Jiraiya waved away their worries away. "Now now, no need to apologize. I know that guard duty can be bit boring and tedious at times so I'll let it slide." Jiraiya said causing both chunin sighed in relief before sitting down in their chairs. "But don't make it a habit alright. Even though it doesn't look like it but guarding the gate is an important duty, one that should be taken with utmost seriousness." He said sternly at them.

Both chunin nodded in understanding.

"We're terribly sorry about it Jiraiya-sama, but like you said guard duty can be a bit boring at times." Kotetsu said as he scratched his head. "I seriously thought this job would be a lot more easy considering that the only ones coming in and out of the village are just merchants and Leaf ninja. But I never thought it would be this boring."

Kotetsu was an averaged chunin who wore the standard Leaf attire which consisted of the green flak jacket, long sleeve shirt and forehead protector. He had long spiky black hair along with a strip of bandage running across the bridge of his nose.

"What are you talking about Kotetsu." Izumo retorted as he crossed his arms. "This job is easy but considering what Jiraiya-sama said it's also important, so we shouldn't be slacking of. What if an enemy shinobi walked right in without us noticing! They would cause trouble and the ones responsible for that will be us!"

Izumo also wore the average chunin uniform except he wore his headband like a bandana. He had brown combed down hair with parts of it covering his right eye.

"If I remember correctly it was your idea to play cards." Kotetsu muttered to Izumo before turning his attention to Jiraiya, "Sorry about that Jiraiya-sama. Is their anything we can help you with?"

"Yeah, just wanted to know if anything happened while I was gone, you know if the kid did anything today that I should be aware of." He asked. "I want to know before meeting him and The Hokage."

"Oh you shouldn't worry about that Jiraiya-sama." Izumo answered before laughing slightly. "Naruto just pulled of another one of his usual pranks and he should be with the Hokage at this moment to discuss his punishment."

"That is worrying." The sannin sighed tirelessly. "I come back from intense work and research and the first thing I learn is that the kid caused trouble again." He then turned his attention back to the two chunin. "What did he do this time?"

Kotetsu shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing much, just vandalized some property with graffiti."

The toad sage groaned annoyingly. "That kid doesn't know that every time he pulls a stunt I take blame for it as well..." He then put a hand on his pocket where his wallet is. "...and have to pay for the damages."

"Well you got to admit some of his pranks are pretty funny." Izumo chuckle a bit. "Especially when some people deserve it."

Jiraiya just sighed to himself again. It isn't a rarity for Naruto to pull a stunt on some of the villagers. It's just the kids way of getting revenge for the way they treat him. Even after all these years the villagers still refuses to acknowledge Naruto as the hero that protects them everyday. Instead they either completely ignore his presence or they view him as the Nine-Tails itself.

Jiraiya talked about his behavior in the past but the kid keep saying it's what the villagers deserve for treating him badly. That it isn't fair for him to be treated the way he is for no reason. He asked the man why he was treated like an outcast but he was simply told him that he is too young to understand. Naruto was left slightly heartbroken to know that even his grandfather figure wouldn't even give him an answer to why the villagers treat him badly. The look the kid gave Jiraiya made the toad sage feel awful inside for not telling him the truth.

Hiruzen already told Jiraiya about the type of treatment Naruto receives from the villagers whenever he isn't with him. The villagers would deny him service to their stores or restaurants, whispered harsh words about him and give him hateful or fearful looks. They would also go as far as to completely ignore his existance and pretend he's not even there. The sannin's anger only increased when he was told that Naruto doesn't have a single friend. Sure he has him, the Hokage and the owners of Ichiraku Ramen to talk to, and they are among the few who view Naruto as a normal person, but they all can't be with him all day, they have their own duties and responsibilities to attend to. Hiruzen told him that the reason for Naruto not having any friends his age was because parents kept telling their children to stay away from Naruto because he's nothing but a no good troublemaker. Jiraiya and Hiruzen knew that was a lie the adults made to make sure Naruto continues to suffer for something that wasn't his fault.

That's were his pranks come into play. It's the only way he can get people to notice him and acknowledge his existence, even if he gets negative attention it's still better than been completely ignore.

Seen the distressed look on the sannin's face and realizing how he hasn't said a word in the past few minutes, the two chunin started to worry.

"Um…Jiraiya-sama?" Kotetsu asked worryingly. "Are you ok? You spaced out for a minute. Are you feeling well?"

"What?" Jiraiya blinked. He turned to the two chunin who were looking at him like he was going crazy. "Hey, what's the matter? Is there something on my face?" He asked as he put a hand on his face. "Is it bad?"

"No it's not that, you just spaced out for a moment." Izumo answered. "It's like you were thinking hard about something."

"Oh that." Jiraiya chuckle sheepishly. "It's nothing to worry about, I was just thinking on how to punish the kid is all."

Before the chunin can ask any more Jiraiya turned around and started making his to the towards the Hokage Tower. He raised a hand and waved both chunin goodbye. "Anyway I'll see you boys later, expect my next hit in about a month or so, I have so much good material I might have to do a double release!" The man yelled.

"You bet we will Jiraiya-sama!" Both chunin exclaimed with blushes before they both took out their own copies of Icha-Icha Paradise with Jiraiya's personal signature. "You're a literacy genius Jiraiya-sama!"

Jiraiya chuckle at that. It warms his heart to see people openly admit to reading his books. In his mind that is something to be proud of not ashamed.

" _Why the hell would they? There is nothing wrong in appreciating good literature_." Jiraiya thought to himself with a smile. " _This world needs more people like that."_

As the sage started walking through the crowds of villagers he took time to look around the now restored village. During the past seven years the villagers spent all their time and energy into repairing their home. It was hard at first considering a lot of people lost love ones but in time the people prevail. They endured the pain and repaired the damage done to the villageu 6. But for some the pain never left them, the memory was still fresh on their minds, of that horrible night where the Village was almost destroyed if it wasn't for the sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage.

 _"Dammit Jiraiya stop it_." The sannin shook his head. It seems today is just him remembering the past and his regrets. " _Feeling regret isn't doing anyone any favors, not now, not ever."_

The man then look up to see he has arrived to his destination, The Hokage Tower. He didn't even noticed he was already there, seems that thinking too much about the past does things to him.

Putting that aside Jiraiya jumped up the tower till he was next to the Hokage's office window. He took a look inside to see who was inside. To no surprised he saw his sensei sitting behind his desk and smoking his pipe with a slightly annoyed look on his face. He was talking to small boy who was sitting in front of him who looked quite bored been in the office. He was a blond spiky haired boy with blue eyes and whisker shape birthmarks framing his face. He wore a white t-shirt with an orange spiral in the middle and green shorts. His clothes and face were cover in paint smudges, probably from the latest prank he just pulled.

"Naruto…" Hiruzen started of as a blew a puff of smoke. "…It's becoming a regular occurrence for you to be in my office to discuss your actions." He then gave an exhausted sigh. "I'm starting to lose count on how many times we had this talk."

Naruto gave him a cheeky smile and scratched the back of his head sheepisly. "Sorry about that old man, can't help myself." He chuckled.

When he said that the hidden ANBU tense at hearing someone calling the Third Hokage, a man with the monikers 'The God Of Shinobi' and 'The Professor' an old man. To them it was completely suicidal to call the leader of the village in such a disrespectful way.

" _Old man_ …" Hiruzen thought with a twitching eye and an impassive look.

Jiraiya quickly hid himself and tried his best not to laugh at his sensei's reaction. It seems that Naruto has taken after him in calling the leader of the village 'old man'. Hiruzen told him to try and teach the boy some manners but it seems his attempts in doing so aren't working.

" _Jiraiya_..." Hiruzen thought as he stopped his twitching eye. He already knows his student is outside doing his best not to laugh at his reaction. "… _while I'm glad you haven't turned him into a pervert like yourself, but you could have least taught him how to treat those in power with some degree of respect."_

Ignoring the blatant act of disrespect, Hiruzen coughed. "Ahem, anyway you should be glad, Naruto. Since I won't be the one scolding you for your actions." He said before he turned on his chair towards the window. "No, after all I'm not responsible for you, _he_ is."

Knowing that's his signal Jiraiya stooped his stiff laughter and made himself known by opening the window and sitting on the windowsill. "Yo! Naruto." He greeted with a smile and wave. "How is the 'old man' been treating ya?"

"Grandpa! You're back!" Naruto happily exclaimed as he rushed towards Jiraiya to give him a hug, who got off the windowsill to kneel down and return it. "When'd you get back?" He asked, clearly happy to see the man again.

"I just back just in time to hear you vandalized someone's property….again." He lightly scolded as he let go of the embrace to put a hand on the kid's head, rufling his hair. "You're going to have tell me the details later, ok?" He said with a chuckle in the end.

Naruto nodded happily and smiled at the feeling of having his hair ruffled by his grandfather-figure. "You bet. Also can we leave the old man's office now?" He said before turning to the Hokage. "Hey old man, can I leave now?"

Hiruzen groaned annoyingly. "Naruto… like I told you before, address me as either Hokage-sama, Hiruzen-sama or Sarutobi-sama. Not old man, please do try to remember that."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "But grandpa calls you Sarutobi-sensei or old man and since you're not my sensei I get to called you old man, old man." He said innocently and with a straight face. "So can I go now, old man?"

Jiraiya laugh at his godson's response, it's always funny for him so see someone, especially a kid, treat the Hokage like he wasn't the strongest Ninja ninja in the village but instead an elderly person. He knows only a handful full of people who did that, Naruto been one of them.

"He's got you there Sarutobi-sensei." Jiraiya said as he continued to chuckle. "or should I say 'old man'."

"Jiraiya…" Hiruzen said in low almost threatening tone causing Jiraiya to stop his laughter. "What have you been teaching the boy? I thought you would be teaching him how to treat the elderly with respect." He said before sighing in exaggeration. "Remember you are his godfather and guardian so you can do aleast do that."

Jiraiya just shrugged his shoulders. "You should know that manners isn't exactly my forte. Kid doesn't want to learn that kind of stuff, but hey I kept both of my promises didn't I." He then got up his feet and looked down at Naruto and smiled at bit. "Anyway we can continue this conversation somewhere else. How about at Ichiraku's ramen?"

"Fuck yeah!" Naruto happily yelled as he pump his fist in the air. "Ichiraku ramen after a successful prank."

"Please don't encourage this type of behavior on Naruto, Jiraiya. At least give him a proper scolding before rewarding him for his misbehavior." Hiruzen said before looking at his student in the eye. "Also please don't teach him curse words, he's still a child and I don't want to heard any vulgar language coming from him this early."

"Geez sensei, I had no idea you were the kid's mother." Jiraiya joked slightly before chuckling a bit. "But if you want to you can take care of him while I'm gone, how bout that?"

Sarutobi sighed tirelessly. "You know very well why I can't do that. Along with my responsibilities as Hokage and Naruto's tricks, I can barely handle the normal amount of paperwork and the damage reports, pluss the ANBU have a hard of enough time as it is trying to track him down." He puffed a long held cloud of smoke. "Like both of you like to call me I _am_ an old man and it would be easier on this old man if Naruto stopped pulling one of his usual tricks."

An idea then popped inside Naruto's head causing him to slightly smirk. "Well you can always retire and make me the Hokage old man." He said as he held out his hands and made a grabbing motion. "Just give me that awesome hat of yours along with the robes and you can spend your retirement doing whatever you want. Heh how bout it, old man?"

Hiruzen chuckle in amusement at that. "You're far too young to be made Hokage Naruto and besides how can you be Hokage if you aren't even a ninja or even in the academy?" He then turned to his student. "But your godfather on the other hand-"

"No way in hell old man." Jiraiya interrupted, already knowing where the conversation was going. "Like I told you before and will keep telling you over and over again, I don't want to be Hokage, I'm not fit for the job." He then crossed his arms to reinforce his statement. "Besides if I'm stuck behind a desk then who will managed my spy network and do my research? Those things aren't easy to manage your know."

"You mean peep on women?" Naruto said impassively before glaring at his godfather. "Maybe I should start calling you by _that_ name, you know the one you said makes you sound less cool whenever I say it in front of people."

Jiraiya's face turned to a look of horror when he was reminded of the nickname Naruto made up for him when he found out what he really does when doing 'research'. A name that Jiraiya thought was both embarrassing and totally uncool. He slightly cursed those hot young nurses that took care of Naruto when he was a baby. Even though they stopped babysitting him when he turned five they left a lasting impact on the kid. They made sure Naruto wouldn't grow up to be a shameful pervert like Jiraiya by drilling it into his head that perverts like him are bad people and should be treated as such. They didn't get their desire results but they did manage to make it so that Naruto now views perverts(like Jiraiya) in a negative way.

" _How foolish_." The super pervert thought to himself with a sinister smirk _. "It might take the kid a while to finally see the light but I'll take that challenge and mold him into the perfect successor."_ Jiraiya thought as he rubbed his hands together in an evil manner _. "Those hotties only halted the inevitable! They stopped nothing! I just have to wait till he's older then will I start his training. I can see it now, the kid will be begging me to take him along to one of my research trips to learn more about the female body and what makes them tick. Just have to wait about ten years or so then we can get started. I can wait, I am a patient man after all._ "

Naruto, Hiruzen, along with the hidden ANBU sweat dropped at seen Jiraiya's bizarre behavior. Their sweat drops only got bigger when they saw him muttering to himself.

 _"I guess I shouldn't have brought that up if I knew this would happen."_ Naruto thought as he looked at Jiraiya bizarrely. He then slightly shiver in slight fear when he imagined what his godfather might be thinking. " _Hope he isn't thinking about killing me._ "

Sarutobi on the other hand was looking at Jiraiya like he used to whenever he acts dumb; annoyingly.

"He will never learn." Hiruzen muttered as he puff another cloud of smoke. He then turned his attention to the blond boy. "Anyway you are free to go with Jiraiya, Naruto. Just try not to cause too much trouble in the village… the both of you."

Naruto nodded his head. "Not making any promises, old man."

Hiruzen smiled. "I'm not asking you to." He said before focusing his attention his student. "And you, Jiraiya!" He yelled causing the pervert to snap out his day dream. "I expect a full report from your findings tonight. NO exceptions. I have important information that you must know." Sarutobi said with his dead serious tone.

Jiraiya's eyes slightly widen at that, he knows exactly what his sensei is talking about.

"Don't worry about it, Sarutobi-Sensei." He said seriously as well before looking down at Naruto, giving him a smile. "We should get going kid, Ichiraku isn't going to stay open forever."

"Finally." Naruto sighed as he slumped his shoulders. "I was starting to get bored just been in this boring office all day."

Both Jiraiya and Hiruzen chuckle at that, they don't want to break the news to him and tell him that the Hokage spends most of the day in an office doing paperwork.

"Anyway we should get going kid." Jiraiya said as he walked towards the open window with Naruto following close behind. Once in front of it he turned to Hiruzen. "I'll report to you tonight like you said." He told him, Hiruzen nodded in response. "Alright then, see ya later old man!" Jiraiya said before jumping out the window.

"Yeah, see ya later old man!" Naruto said as he followed his godfather's lead and jumped out the window as well.

Hirezen just sighed in exasperation after seeing how much Naruto and Jiraiya not only act similar but also have the same method of leaving buildings, or more specifically his office. He's grateful that the nurses he assigned to take care of Naruto, when he was an infant, did their best to prevent him from becoming an exact copy of Jiraiya. But even so, Hiruzen can only imagine how long it will take for Jiraiya to finally start molding him into a pervert like himself.

" _I'm starting to wonder if Jiraiya was the right person to take care of Naruto._ " Hiruzen thought before shaking his head and dismissing the thought. " _No, Minato and Kushina put their trust and faith in Jiraiya and so should I…but that doesn't mean I shouldn't worry."_ Sarutobi then looked at the Hokage portraits that where in display in front of the room, more specifically he looked at the picture of his late successor. " _I could only imagine what you went through when Jiraiya trained you…Minato, but you shouldn't worry too much. Jiraiya is doing his absolute best and so am I."_

Just as he was about to return to his paperwork, Sarutobi sense two familiar chakra signatures entering his office. He relaxed since both intruders posse no threat. He knows who's chakra it is since it belongs to two of his most loyal shinobi. The two hid their chakra so well that not even his personal ANBU guards noticed them entering.

"ANBU, leave." Sarutobi commanded as he sense his guards leaving the room. When he knew the ANBU were gone he activated his privacy seals, to make sure no one could hear or see inside his office.

"You can come out now." The Hokage said to seemly nobody. "Both of you."

Coming out of hiding and kneeling in front of the Hokage were two of his most strongest and dangerous ninja, but also the village's most loyal.

The one on the left had short black unkempt hair. He wore a high-collared black shirt with the Uchiha crest resting on the back along with the Leaf's headband tied around his forehead. He also had a harness that ran across his chest and fastened over both his shoulders to hold his tanto.

The one on the right also had black hair except his was longer. He had his hair tied in a low ponytail with two bangs framing both sides of his face and extending down to his cheeks. He wore the standard ANBU uniform with the armor and arm guards except he wasn't wearing the mask; under his eyes were short, pronounced tear-troughs.

Putting more tobacco in his pipe, Hiruzen lit it before taking in a long drag. He then exhaled a long line of smoke. "Report. Itachi, Shisui."

* * *

(Ichiraku Ramen)

"So tomorrow is the day you start the academy huh?" Jiraiya questioned as he ate from his bowl of ramen. He swallowed the noodles before looking at the blond next to him. "I guess it's lucky for you that I'm going to be here the whole week, otherwise you would have gone by yourself."

"You're staying here the whole week!?" Naruto nearly choked on his food when he heard that. He quickly drank from his glass of water to help him swallow, putting his glass down he looked at his godfather with excitement. "I didn't know you were staying the week? Why is that?"

"To look take care of you after all." Jiraiya simply responded before smirking. "Why? Do I need other reason to take care of my godson? Like making sure you don't cause any more trouble?"

He and Naruto were currently sitting and eating at their favorite ramen stand, Ichiraku Ramen. They arrived just a few minutes ago to eat although they could have arrived earlier but they first had to go home to clean the paint of Naruto's face and have him changed clothes. That didn't take long since Naruto would run a marathon to eat his precious ramen.

Slurping some noodles into his mouth, Naruto shook his head. "No, just wanted to know because tomorrow is the entrance ceremony and I don't want to miss it. After that my ninja training finally begins." He said with a mouth full of noodles.

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full Naruto-kun, it's bad table manners if you do so and it's a choking hazard." A feminine voice said from behind the counter.

Both godson and godfather turned towards the source of the voice. It belonged to the owner's daughter, Ayame Ichiraku. She was a young girl with long brown hair and black eyes, she wore the usual white robe with a blue apron combo along with a white bandana, normal for one that works in a ramen stand.

Naruto swallowed his food before scratching the back of his head and giving the girl a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that, Ayame." He chuckle nervously. "It's that I'm really excited to finally start my ninja training. After all I'm planning on becoming Hokage one day and the Hokage has to be a Ninja first."

Jiraiya slightly frown at that as he ate his ramen. Ever since he told him that the Third Hokage was his teacher and that he personally train the Fourth Hokage Naruto told him that his dream is to become Hokage like the both of them. In all honesty Jiraiya blames himself for that, since he was the one who accidentally slipped out the fact that The Fourth was one of his students, thankfully Naruto never asked if The Fourth and his father had any connections. That would have been the most stressful day of his life if that happened but luckily it didn't, not yet anyways. He can only guess that the kid's eagerness for becoming Hokage only increased when Sarutobi offered him the job, something the old man does a lot whenever the three of them are together. Whether the old man means it or is just joking he doesn't know what kind of an effect it might have on the kid.

"Well you can't be Hokage on an empty stomach, Naruto." Said another voice from the kitchen. This one coming from the owner of Ichiraku's and Ayame's father; Teuchi Ichiraku. He was an older man who wore the same white robe as Ayame except he wore a hat instead. He brought a second bowl of ramen to Naruto after seen he was almost finished with the first.

"It would be nice to know that two Hokage and the future one love eating here." Teuchi said before chuckling. "It would raise the prestige of this old hut and bring in tons of customers when they find out famous people love eating here."

Naruto quickly finished drinking the broth of his first bowl and started eating his second one bowl. He was about to talk but then remembered Ayame would scold him for eating with his mouth full again. So he ate and swallowed before talking. "What do you mean Teuchi-san? I know The Third likes eating here with us once in a while but I don't know of any other Hokage that eats here too." He questioned.

"He's talking about the Fourth Hokage kid." Jiraiya answered before smiling a bit of the memories he had with Minato and Kushina eating ramen. "Long before he became Hokage, and even after, The Fourth would come here with his girlfriend to eat and talk about whatever comes to mind." He then chuckle to himself. "Although I'm pretty sure it was his girl that made him come here since she always had an apatite for ramen."

"The Fourth Hokage used to eat here too!?" Naruto asked in surprised and slighty widen eyes.

Jiraiya slightly nodded in confirmation. "You bet he did, though I'm not sure if he ever developed a loved for ramen like his girl." He answered before he drank the broth from his bowl in one go. Placing the bowl down Jiraiya then looked at his godson in the eye. "But hey Naruto, I want to know something. Why do you want to be Hokage? It's not something many people would consider pursuing."

"Because…" Naruto started out before looking slightly down. "The Hokage is someone everyone respects no matter what. People always look up to him and treat him like a hero, I want people to treat me the same way and I figured that if I become Hokage then they would finally start treating me like a real person." He said with a slight depressed tone. "So when you told me The Fourth was your student and The Third was your teacher, I knew that was the only cool thing about you…"

" _That's the only cool thing about me!?"_ Jiraiya thought with a look of feign sadness and with anime tears running down his face. " _I'm cool for other reasons too y'know!"_

"….and when the old man keeps offering you to be Hokage I kept thinking you would take it and train me to be your successor." Naruto said as he looked at Jiraiya with a smile. "If you became Hokage then it would be easier for me to be Hokage that way people will finally start respecting me and stop treating me like I'm nobody."

" _I see now…"_ Jiraiya thought to himself with a slight frown. He never thought the kid would only desire the Hokage position just for such a reason. " _…I have to break it to him or else it can cause him some trouble in the future._ "

"Kid let me tell you this right now….give it up." He harshly said. "You're not going to be Hokage."

"What?!" Naruto responded before getting angry and glaring at his godfather. He feels a bit betray that his godfather would tell him to give up on his dream. "What do you mean give it up? I am going to be Hokage so why the hell are you saying I should give up on my dream?!"

"I'm telling you that because the reasons you want to be Hokage are not only selfish but stupid as well." Jiraiya argued with his own glare. "Do you even know what the Hokage does or what he is?"

"All he does is just sit behind his desk doing nothing and telling people what to do." Naruto retorted, still glaring at his godfather. "What more is there to it? Anyone can do that and people respect him for that."

"Then why isn't everyone doing it huh?" Jiraiya questioned before losing his glare and replacing it with a soft look. "Listen kid, anyone can sit behind a desk and give orders, it's not that hard. The Hokage does more that just sit behind a desk and receive admiration, he's the freaking leader of the village! Do you know what that means?"

Naruto's glare turned to a confusing look. "No, what does it mean? What does he really do?" He asked his godfather.

"Protects the village, leads it and cares for it." Jiraiya answered as he placed a hand on Naruto's head and ruffle his hair. "He's the one people rely on for guidance whenever the village is in trouble. He makes the hardest decisions out of anyone here. He has to make sure every citizen in the village are safe under his watch. A Hokage is someone who leads from the front and takes whatever pain and suffering is ahead of him, so that the people he protects won't have to. It's a stressful job that isn't easy to do. I can tell you right now that Sarutobi-sensei doesn't do it for fun and he sure in hell isn't doing it for respect either, he's doing it to protect everyone he cares for and he is willing to lay down his life for the village without hesitating. Because to the Hokage everyone in the village is family. So don't believe that becoming Hokage guarantees acknowledgement and respect from all, it doesn't work that way. It's the one who's respected and acknowledged by all that becomes Hokage." He finished before taking in a deep breath. He removed his hand from Naruto's head and looked him in the eye. "Do you understand now, Naruto? Don't be Hokage because you want the acknowledgement from everyone, be Hokage because you want to protect everyone."

Naruto looked down a bit in distress. He never thought his dream was a selfish desire or that the Hokage has to do so much. But after listening to Jiraiya's reasoning on what the Hokage position actually means, he's starting to believe it was selfish and stupid. Up until now he truly believed the only way to gain respect and acknowledgement from the village was to become the Hokage, now he's seeing that isn't the case and that everything he believed in was wrong.

"But how am I supposed to get everyone's respect when they don't even acknowledged my existence? The villagers hate me." Naruto asked in a sad tone. He then looked up at Jiraiya with a slight scowl. "Why should I protect them when they won't do the same for me?"

"Endure it kid or ignore it." Jiraiya stated. "Listen I know it will hard but you're going to have to work for the peoples respect, earn it. Show them that you're worthy of it, after all respect is earn not given freely. Show them you have the strength to get up and walk away from all the pain they throw at you, prove to them that they were wrong for treating you the way they do. I know you won't gain everyone's respect but you have to at least try to earn it. You have to start somewhere so you might as well start by taking some baby steps and changed the villagers views of you one person at a time. The Village's entire view of you won't change in just one day but you can slowly change it a few years. You just have to be patient and endure it and maybe one day you can be Hokage and once you do you'll realize that working for things you want feels a lot better than have it given to you." The man finished before stretching out his arms and taking in another deep breath. "Man, I haven't talk that much since….seven years ago."

Naruto sat there and took in everything his godfather just told him, it was alot to take in but he knows that Jiraiya isn't wrong about what he said, he may be a pervert but he isn't an idiot. After a few seconds of thinking he looked at his godfather. "But what if I do all that and people still don't respect me?" The blond boy questioned with a slight frown. "Then what do I do?"

"Ignore them kid." Jiraiya replied. "If people still treat you like crap after all you've done for them then their respect and acknowledgement isn't worth your time. Just like now, if people are saying stuff about you then ignored them till you're ready to prove them wrong. For now the only opinions that should matter to you are of those you care about."

Naruto looked at his bowl of ramen and thought about it. Jiraiya was right, he should have been ignoring all the things people have been saying about him. He can't show them that the things they say actually hurt him, that will only encouraged them to continue. He will have to work hard to earn the people's respect and acknowledgement in the future, but for now he'll ignore their words and looks.

"Thanks you for that, grandpa." Naruto said as he looked at Jiraiya with a small smile. "But I still want to be Hokage it's my goal and dream, but I guess I'm going to have to gain everyone's respect and acknowledgement first before I can do that." He said before he ate his second bowl of ramen in silent.

Jiraiya smile at the kid's answer. He's glad he was able to have this conversation with his godson, it was almost like talking to both Kushina and Minato when they were genin. Except he's having it with a kid who's not even an academy student. Now he won't have to worry about the kid having the wrong idea about what it means to be Hokage. It's times like these that Jiraiya is glad he decided to take care of Naruto or else he would've had one more regret and failure.

After finishing his ramen, Naruto sigh in content. "Ahhh…that hit the spot." He smiled before turning to Jiraiya. "So how do I get started in earning the villagers respect?"

The Sannin chuckle. "Well for starters you can stop pranking the villagers." Jiraiya suggested as he got up and got out his wallet, he pulled out a few Ryo bills and paid for the food. "I know you want the villagers to learn a lesson but in all honesty your making it harder for them to respect you by doing that."

He then walked out of the stand with Naruto following close behind. They walked down the road to an unknown destination with Jiraiya leading the way and Naruto following next to him. The sun was still up high and showed no sign of going down anytime soon. The streets were already crowded with villagers moving around and doing business as usual. When some saw Naruto they instantly glared at him but after seeing Jiraiya next to him they quickly turned to look away, but some still gave him looks.

"Do I really have to?" Naruto asked with a frown. He ignored the looks and whispers he was receiving from a few people, after his talk with Jiraiya it no longer bothers him. Even though he was around Jiraiya some people still have the guts to look at him with fear or hate. "I mean, some of them I do for fun and others I do because people kick me out of their stores, it's not like I'm hurting anybody."

"Yes kid I mean it." Jiraiya said as he continued walking. He too was ignoring the looks and words people were giving his godson. As much as he wants to he can't do anything to the villagers because they technically weren't breaking the Hokage's law. But once in a while he would give anyone who gave Naruto a look an intimidating glare that would make season ninja scared for their lifes. "Trust me if you're serious about this then a good way to start is to stop pranking, or at least tone it down a bit where people won't complain as much."

Naruto sighed in response. "Alright, from here on out I promise to tone down my pranking." He then raised a hand to further solidify it. "I promise to tone down on pranking but I won't fully stop doing it because they're still fun to do, and if I don't then I would stop eating ramen for an entire year. Because I, Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of the Hidden Leaf keeps his promises no matter what." When he finished he lower his hand before looking up at Jiraiya. "How's that?"

"Perfect." Jiraiya said with a proud smile. "This works for the both of us actually. You won't do as many pranks and I wont have to talk to Hokage about it or pay the damages." Jiraiya then look down at Naruto. "You do realize I have to pay for the damages you cause, right? After all you're my responsibility till you graduate."

"Oops…" The kid chuckle nervously as he scratched his cheek. "I didn't knew that, sorry about that grandpa."

"Just be glad money isn't an issue for me kid." Jiraiya said blankly before laughing loudly. "Otherwise you would have bankrupted a normal shinobi and given the old man twice the amount of paper work. Hell with the amount of ramen you eat would have bankrupted the old man and he's the freaking Hokage!"

Naruto laugh along as well. "The old man might as well be glued to his chair with the amount of work he would have to do."

"No kid, he would be force to live in his office!" Jiraiya laughed even harder. "The old man would have so many bags under his eyes he would bags under those bags and you would have enough paperwork to cover up the entire Hokage monument or the entire village!"

"You would also have to cut half of the forrest down to make up for the loss of paper!" Naruto said outloud while still laughing.

"And with that you can kiss The Hidden Leaf Village goodbye and say hello to The Village Hidden underneath Paperwork!" Jiraiya laught. "Nobody would ever think the village would be underneath boring paperwork, it's the perfect hiding spot for a hidden village!"

Naruto burst out laughing at his godfather's joke. Both of them started laughing so loudly at their own jokes people momentarily stopped their glaring and whispering and ended up silently chuckling with them. It's something about those two laughing that was so contagious that others couldn't help but silently join them. It's times like these that Jiraiya was very glad he decided to take care of Naruto. If he hadn't who knew what kind of a person Naruto would have end up becoming, the thought alone scares Jiraiya. As the two continued to laugh and walk infecting more and more with their infectious laughter.

One of their victims, who happened to have walked by them, was a little girl with her guardian. She had dark blue hair that was cut short in a hime-style cut with two small stands framing her face and streaming her cheeks. She wore a loose fitting dark purple jacket that was a bit too big for her along with a dark maroon color pants. Her eyes were white and pupil-less with tinges of lavender in them showcasing her bloodline.

She tried her best to suppressed her giggles with her hand but they kept coming out. The two males who walked by them ended up spreading their laughter to her and she was trying her best to stop her laughing.

"What's seems to be so funny, Hinata-sama?" Her caretaker asked with a curious look and smile. It would seem he was not as affected like the others. "I don't think I ever heard you laugh before and not so enthusiastically either."

He was a man with short brown hair and had the same eyes as the girl but his' were completely white. He wore the standard black kimono their clan usually wears.

"I-I-I'm s-s-sorry K-Ko-san." Hinata giggle and stutter at the same time, doing her best to stop laughing. "I-I-It w-w-was t-t-hose two t-t-hat made me laugh."

"You mean Jiraiya-sama and Naruto?" Ko asked.

Hinata nodded, finally rid of her laughter. "T-hey were l-laughing and I o-overheard their j-joke" She said with a slight stutter. "S-something about an old man."

Ko nervously chuckle. "Yeah, I heard their joke too. Although the man they were discussing happens to be someone very important with great political power, even more so than your father actually." He doesn't want to admit that he too was laughing at the joke the two males made about the Hokage's old age. "So I would advise you not laugh or make fun of those with a higher status, Hinata-sama."

Hinata nodded nervously. She didn't know she was laughing about someone with a higher status than her father. The only one she can think of with more power than him is the Third Hokage, but nobody would be brave or dumb enough to make fun of him.

As the two continue their walk through the crowds of the village Hinata turned her head to look at the two males who made her laugh like she hasn't ever since her mother's death. She kept her eyes on the back of the blond boy's head. She has seen him before pulling pranks and running away from the ANBU whenever he gets caught, but they always seemed to have a hard time trying to catch the boy for some odd reason.

She also seen the looks the people in the village give him along with the mean words they whispered towards him whenever he walks around the village alone. Hinata has no idea why the villagers would treat the boy in such a way, the only bad thing he has ever done was just pull harmless pranks. Surely that doesn't justify the way the villagers treat him. She knows that he's aware of the words and looks he receives but he just ignores it and puts on a fake smile to hide his hurting emotions.

But today when she saw his smile it felt real and full of life, maybe it was because he was with the white-haired man, who she could only assume is his grandfather. Hinata can only guess the blond boy is an orphan because she only sees him walking alone or with the white-haired man and no one else. She doesn't see the older man around the village as much but whenever he is the blond boy is always with him, smiling and laughing like all the pain in his heart was never there.

Hinata continued to stare at the boy's receding form until she felt her hand been pulled slighly. She turned to look at her guardian who was looking at her with slight concern.

"Are you feeling well, Hinata-sama?" Ko questioned worryingly. "Your walking slowed down and you kept looking out in the horizon. Are you ill?"

Blushing in embarrassment Hinata shook her head. "N-No it's not that I was just t-thinking about s-something." She stutter before looking at the ground. "I-Im sorry."

"It's alright Hinata-sama." Ko reassured with a warm smile. "You don't need to apologize for anything, I'm sure Hiashi-sama won't be mad about us been a minute late."

Hinata face turned to one of slight fear when Ko reminded her of her father, their clans head and leader. Today she's supposed to have another sparring session with him to see how much she has improved in their fighting style. They always end the same. With Hinata losing badly and Hiashi criticizing her performance and lack of skill. Even thought she's giving it her all her father always finds a way to put her down and make her feel like she hasn't improve. It's because of this that Hinata has had a shy and timid nature with low self-confidence. It also didn't help that even members of her own family view her the same way as Hiashi does. It's that reason why she will be starting the Ninja Acadamy tomorrow. Hiashi enrolled her into the Ninja Acadamy believing that if she went then she would somewhat improve and be a capable kunoichi worthy of her title of clan heiress. But her father told her that if she doesn't improve and meet his expectations in the coming months then he will focus his attention on her younger sister and have her succeed him.

With that in mind Hinata continued her walk with Ko back to their clans compound, with Hinata growing more anxious about her upcoming training session with her father and with starting the academy tomorrow.

But as the two continued their walk towards their clans compound the smile from the blond boy popped inside Hinata's head. She doesn't know why that of all things came to mind right after thinking about her match with Hiashi but she slighlty smile at the thought and found a sliver of strength from it.

* * *

 **Well?**

 **Well hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Sorry if it was boring or not what you expected after waiting months for an update. If you've seen the author's note in the beginning then you know. If anything this chapter was more of a confirmation that this story is still going.**

 **Anyway I'll do my absolute best to update next time but with current times that might be a bit hard.**

 **So if you enjoyed don't forget to drop a like, comment, question, review, share, hit that subscribe button, followed and favorite this story, message me if ya like, send me any suggestions if you want to, spam me stuff or anything else.**

 **Nothing makes me happier than seen your glorious reviews.**

 **Anyway peace!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yo!**

 **Well….that's it. Here is chapter 4. Sorry for the long wait.**

 **This story and idea was heavily inspired by Psycho-G and his story Sealed Legacy. Special thanks to him for letting me use some of his ideas.**

 **Disclaimer:**

 _"Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto."- Almost every fanfic author on this site who has ever written a Naruto story, The current year A.D. ~ Till the end of time or when One Piece ends, whichever comes first tbh_ _desu senpai famalam._

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Starting out**

Jiraiya gave another exhausted yawned in his hand as he and Naruto walked towards the Ninja Academy to participate in the entrance ceremony. It was still somewhat early in the village so he's glad he doesn't have to deal with a lot of people glaring or whispering at Naruto. Today the Toad Sage decided to wear a more 'formal' attire for the occasion, which was basically his favorite blue kimono-shirt with red flame designs at the bottom and sleeves, he also wasn't wearing his usual custom headband. He figured that since he's going to be staying the entire week them he doesn't need to be wearing his ninja attire, believing that if he wore something more comfortable it might relief some stress.

But it seems that is wasn't doing the trick since last night was probably one of the most mind-exhausted nights Jiraiya has ever experienced, almost rivaling the day he discovered the existence of the gate the Uzumaki clan kept hidden under their village. He doesn't know which one was worse though; The gate or what he learned last night.

Yesterday, just after Naruto went to bed, Jiraiya went to the Hokage's office to give his sensei his usual reports and to discuss the important matter he wanted to talk about in private. Jiraiya's report was rather short considering that nothing of concern was really happening in the other hidden villages. But that all changed when Sarutobi activated his privacy seals and told him something extremely disturbing and worrying. They spent hours discussing the topic to the point where they both lost track of time. After they finished Jiraiya went home to tried to get some sleep but after everything Hiruzen told him was too much to bare and too much to wrap his head around that he doesn't remember what time he went to sleep or if he even got an hour of it.

"Hey grandpa, are you still sleepy?" Naruto asked as he looked up at Jiraiya. Unlike his godfather he wasn't tired at all but instead fully rested. "Didn't you get some sleep after talking to the old man last night?"

"Huh?" Jiraiya blinked his eyes open a few times before looking down at his godson. "Oh yeah I slept …" He gave another loud yawn in his hand. "…I think. It's just that the old man and I were talking for a long time about very important stuff."

"What kind of important stuff did you guys talked about?" Naruto questioned curiously.

"Important grown up stuff." Jiraiya answered.

"What kind of important grown up stuff?" The blond asked again.

"Important grown up stuff that brats like you don't need to know." Jiraiya answered back but after seeing Naruto's mouth open to ask again, he quickly cut him off. "We were talking about all the awesome times we had back in the day observing and admiring those magnificent creatures we call 'Women'." The man blushed and smiled a bit perversely while having a nostalgic look on his face. "Oh man were those the days, Sarutobi-sensei and I had a wild time admiring and discussing about thos-"

"Okay, I get it now." Naruto annoyingly interrupted and scowl. "Geez, you and the old man are probably the biggest perverts in this village. At least the old man tries to hide it unlike you, grandpa." The blond then growl a bit. "Is that the very 'important grown up stuff' you guys were talking about all night?"

"Yup." Jiraiya happily replied. "Told ya it was important grown up stuff, but I'm afraid you're still too young to partake in our mature intellectual conversations, Naruto." The man said before giving a smirk. "You will have to wait a few years for that, I'm afraid."

Naruto frowned a bit. "I think I'll pass, thank you."

The toad sage chuckle a bit at that. He placed a hand on his godson's hair and ruffle it a bit. "Oh come on Naruto," Jiraiya said as he gave the blond a look of feign betrayal. "You don't really mean that, do you? It's a great bonding exercise me and Sarutobi-sensei did when we were a team and it would surely help to strenghten our bond. "

"Yes I do mean it." Naruto blankly responded with a hint of slight annoyance. "I don't want anything to do with what you and the old man talked about, y'know."

Jiraiya took his hand off the kid's head and chuckle. He's glad Naruto bought the lie. There is no reason for the kid to learned what Sarutobi told him last night. "Well all right, I'll respect your decision." He said with a slight smile. " _You'll come around eventually, but for the moment I'm sorry I had to lie to you again, Naruto. You're still too young to have to carry my burdens, and I hope you won't ever have to._ " The toad sage though as he and Naruto continued their walked towards the academy in silence.

As they continued their walked Naruto suddenly remembered something he wanted to ask his godfather. "Hey grandpa." He said as he looked up at the man. "Can I ask you something? Y'know, about the talk we had yesterday at Ichiraku's."

"Sure thing kid, ask away." Jiraiya responded casually. "Does it have to do anything to do with the Hokage?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah it does and I was just wondering… why don't you want to be The Hokage? " He asked.

Jiraiya was caught slightly of guard by the question but he didn't showed it. He wasn't really expecting that to be the kid's question.

"I thought I already told you and Sarutobi-sensei already." Jiraiya answered with a tired tone. "I'm a busy man that has to maintain a complicated intelligence network to keep The Leaf safe from outside forces and there isn't anybody in the village who can the job but me." He yawned tirelessly again. "Also I don't have the time nor the patience to be stuck in a boring office all day."

Naruto wasn't buying the answer though. "Come on grandpa, that can't be the only reason why you don't want the job." He said stubbornly as he put his hands behind his head. "Like you said yesterday The Hokage has to someone who is acknowledged and respected by everybody in the village, so you sorta got that part down, and you always love to brag about how you're the strongest ninja in the entire village. Plus the old man keeps asking you if you want the job but you keep saying no for some reason. So what's the deal then? I want to know."

"Do you really want to know kid?" Jiraiya asked with seriousness. When Naruto nodded the Toad Sage looked him right in the eye. "There is a very important reason why I don't want the job, but what I want to know is if you can understand my reasoning on why that is. Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Yeah, I can handle it just tell me already grandpa." Naruto requested respectfully. He really wanted to know the reason why his godfather doesn't want to take the Hokage title and he's been serious for once now that he's finally going to get the answer to his question. "Why don't you want to be Hokage?"

Jiraiya's face took the most serious look it can form. "I don't want my face sculptured on the Hokage mountain." He finally answered with a very serious tone before chuckling a bit and finally laughing hysterically at his own joke. "HAHAHAHAHAHA Can you imagine how many women would faint at the sight of my handsome face on that huge rock?! More than half of the female population will be running towards me to catch a glimpse of me!" The man wiped a tear that was threatening to shead from all his laughing. "I know I'm already a world renowned author with millions of fans but if my face gets put on that mountain I could be responsible for the hospitalization of the kunoichi force from the loss of blood and lose fans from the scandal it can cause."

Naruto gritted his teeth angrily at the answer Jiraiya gave him. "Come on grandpa be serious for once! If anything you want your face on the Hokage Mountain!" Naruto yelled as he glared at the still chuckling man and frowned. "Just tell me the real reason already. Why don't you want to be the Hokage? Are you afraid of something?"

Jiraiya looked at Naruto as his laughter finally died out. When he saw the look the blond was giving him he realized he was been serious and wanted a real answer. Jiraiya just sighed at Naruto's stubbornness. That's another thing that annoys the Sannin at times, Naruto is a stubborn kid…just like his parents. But the kid's final question really made him think about his reasons for not taking the Hokage position. When it came down to it there are plenty of reasons why he doesn't want the job, most of them being personal ones.

"I'm not afraid kid." Jiraiya finally answered before giving a dry chuckle. "I'm absolutely terrified at the thought. Me, Hokage!? Can you imagine me being Hokage? I can barely handle the pressure of keeping the village safe from the outside with my spy network, I don't even want to imagine how much harder it would be for me to protect it as its leader. I wouldn't even know what to do if a crisis emerges let alone how to handle it. Like I told you yesterday being Hokage is a big job with a lot responsibilities which, quite frankly, I don't feel I can handle." The man then gave a soft look to his godson. "And besides, I like protecting the village from the outside, makes me feel like I'm been more useful to it defending it out in the field than I would be in an office."

Naruto looked at his godfather for a moment before turning at the road in front of them. "So…" The blonde started out slowly as he looked slightly down at the dirt road. "…You're afraid of messing things up whenever the village is in trouble? Is that it?"

Jiraiya was silent for a few seconds as he thought about it. He saw Naruto was looking slightly down and couldn't help but wonder if the kid was expecting a different answer, but he won't push it.

"Yeah I am, why wouldn't I be?" The Toad sage admitted after a moment of silence. "The safety of every citizen would be on my shoulders and not only that but every shinobi would be looking up at me for guidance and leadership. So if I screw things up or hesitate then that could result in the further loss of life. Even the strongest ninja can't protect everybody, sometimes you will have to live with the regret that you couldn't save everyone you care for. That's the hard life of a ninja but you shouldn't let that regret consume you kid, otherwise you will lose more people important to you." Jiraiya said with wisdom before frowning a bit. "My other reason why I won't take the Hokage title is because I don't deserve such an honor, I've already made so many screw ups in the past that I don't want to add more to my long line of failures and bring shame to the Hokage name."

As Jiraiya said that he started to remember all of the people he failed in the past. Each one them being a vital part of his life but he couldn't a damn thing to save them. He couldn't save the love of his life from her despair nor was he able to give her the love she desperately wanted, he couldn't save his best friend from his inner darkness nor was he able to stop him from leaving the village to commit more terrible crimes, but that all pales in comparison from what believes to be his biggest failures; Not been able to save a single one of his students he swore to protect. He was their teacher and they his apprentices but he wasn't there to able to save a single one of them. He taught them everything it means to be a ninja but still Jiraiya blames himself for not doing more and not been there when they truly needed him. Out of all his failures those were probably his biggest and the ones that will probably never give him peace.

"If you don't want to lose those who are important to you then get stronger for their sake and your own." Jiraiya wisely said as he looked at Naruto. Now that he thinks about it Jiraiya hasn't failed all of them, he still has Naruto and the promise he made towards his parents that he will look out and protect him. After all it's his duty as the kid's godfather and nothing was going to change that. He hasn't failed Minato and Kushina just yet and he sure in hell isn't going to fail Naruto. Jiraiya promised himself he won't.

Naruto looked up and saw his godfather had a look of wisdom he doesn't see often. It was the complete opposite of the usual perverted and light-hearted nature Naruto is used to, it reminded him of his godfather of yesterday, the one who lectured him about what the Hokage title really means. At the moment Jiraiya has earned more of Naruto's respect although he wasn't going to tell the old pervert that, he doesn't want to hear another one of his godfather's over exaggerated speeches about himself and his exploits.

"Does the old man feel that way too?" Naruto asked as he returned his gazed at the road in front of them. "Y'know, afraid of messing things up and not been able to protect everybody?"

"Of course he does, after all nobody is perfect and Sarutobi-sensei is no exception." Jiraiya answered. "I've been there during sensei's biggest mistakes and blunders and I know he regrets a lot of things he did in the past but he endures it because as Hokage he has to think about the village first before he can think about his own faults." The man then smiled a bit. "But that's why he has me and the rest of the shinobi to help him protect everybody, after all he is just one man and he can't do everything all by himself."

"Oh, I see now." Naruto said softly. After finding out the reasons why his godfather refuses to take the Hokage title the same doubts that were plaguing his godfather were now starting to plague him. He knew the Hokage position was a big job he just didn't know it was that big of a responsibility that it can make someone like Jiraiya have doubts about their abilities. Protecting everybody and leading the entire shinobi force can definitely be nerve-wracking and Naruto isn't sure if he can handle something like that in the future. Not to mention the fact that if he messes things up or hesitates more people can die in the process and it'll be his fault for it.

Jiraiya saw the look on Naruto's face and noticed that he hasn't said anything in a while. It wasn't hard for the Toad Sage to figure out what his godson was thinking at the moment after they had their conversation. Deciding to sooth things out he place a hand on Naruto's head and gave his hair his familial hair ruffling.

"Don't think too much about that kind of stuff kid." Jiraiya said with a cheerful grin. "After all you're still nothing but a loudmouth shrimp who has a long, and mean long, way to go before becoming Hokage, so you might as well enjoy been a kid before you have that kind of mindset."

"Hey! I'm not a loudmouth shrimp!" Naruto angrily responded as looked up to glare at the his godfather. When Naruto saw Jiraiya giving him his usual carefree, cheerful smile and felt his hand ruffling his blond hair like he always does he relaxed and calm down, all negative feelings he had all washed away from his godfather's touch. Once he was back to normal Naruto smiled. "Yeah you're right about that grandpa. Guess I was getting ahead of myself heh." He then chuckle a bit. "I shouldn't think too much about it and besides I'm not too worry about it because I'll have you with me whenever I need help."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at the statement. "What do you mean whenever you need help?" He questioned as he removed his hand off the kid's head. "Seems like your still getting ahead of yourself and thinking about things that haven't happen yet."

"I mean you'll help me whenever I need help." Naruto explained. Seen as his godfather still doesn't understand he elaborated. "You'll help me with whenever there is a big problem I need help fixing y'know. Since by the time I'll be Hokage the old man will probably be in some retirement home or something and since you're not as old as him you'll still be around to do things like helping me with the village and stuff."

"' _Not as old as him_ '" Jiraiya thought in annoyance when Naruto said that. It wasn't rare for the kid to keep reminding him of his age but he guesses it's fair, he did it to Hiruzen in his youth whenever he had the chance, so this was probably a weird form of payback from some divine being. Now he shares another thing in common with his sensei, disrespectful brats. "So you want me to be like some kind of advisor?" He asked, returning to topic.

"Yeah." Naruto responded with a nod. "You know more stuff than I do so having you around would makes things a bit easier for me, y'know."

"I'll think about it kid." Jiraiya answered as the two of them finally saw the gates to the Ninja Academy. The man then made his way through the entrance with the blond following besides him. "Like I said you're still thinking too far ahead of things that have yet to happen, but when you do make it and become Hokage then I'll give you my answer, got it?"

Naruto answered with a nod and smile. "Got it."

"Good to hear." The Toad sage said as the two of them started making their way towards the academy building where a huge banner that read 'Welcome New Students' was place on it. Just in front of the building were some desks with some chunin instructors finalizing the entry papers parents gave them while the rest of the instructors were still helping parents filling the necessary paperwork.

Jiraiya started making his way towards one of the desks with Naruto following close behind. On their way they saw dozen of parents with their own children waiting for the ceremony to start. Some looked to be civilians families while others looked like to be from shinobi clans. When some of the civilian parents saw who just arrived some of them frowned or glared at the blond boy, but after seen Jiraiya, and the threating look he was giving them, they quickly turned away from them. But that didn't stop them from whispering to one another about the blond.

"Why is _he_ here?"

"I don't know but it can't be good."

"What was Hokage-sama thinking when he allowed that boy to enter the academy?"

"I don't know, since that boy is the Ni-"

"Shhhhh, you're not supposed to talk about that in public! You want to get killed!?"

"You're right, forgot about that, but regardless we should all be glad that Jiraiya-sama is here."

"Yeah, he'll defend us and our children if anything goes wrong."

"Now we can relax knowing one of the Sannin is here to protect us."

Jiraiya silently gritted his teeth in anger when he heard the last part. While it's true that as a shinobi he's supposed to protect the civilian population from any danger his duties as Naruto's godfather take priority first. So while he will protect them from harm he just won't do it unless ordered to. But as Naruto's legal guardian he won't hesitate to defend him from any physical danger. Jiraiya finds a bit ironic that the civilians, the ones he has sworn to defend, don't know he's actually here to protect Naruto from them. The toad sage slightly smirk at the thought as he looked down to see Naruto not bothered by the harsh words people were whispering about him. He kept a straight face and pretended like he didn't hear anything. The Sannin was glad to see Naruto taking his advice about not letting people's words get to him to heart.

" _Now if he can only be taught how to respect his elders then that would be great_." Jiraiya thought as he and Naruto finally made it to one of the desks where a chunin instructor sat behind it, reviewing some paperwork. The man looked like he was in his early twenties with a scar running across the bridge of his nose, he also had a ponytail to keep his brown hair up.

"Yo! How's it been Iruka?" Jiraiya greeted.

The man named Iruka looked up from his paperwork to see one of the Legendary Sannin in front of him with a friendly smile on his face. His eyes widen in surprise as he set the papers down and quickly got up from chair to bow the man in respect. "Jiraiya-sama! I didn't see you there please accept my apologies sir!"

"It's alright, Iruka. No need to apologize." Jiraiya casually waved away, feeling a bit of déjà vu from yesterday. "You were busy with paperwork so it should be me who should apologize for interrupting you."

"Thank you Jiraiya-sama, but I still feel bad for not noticing you when you've arrived." Iruka responded as he scratched his head in embarrassment, at which he noticed the blond spiky haired boy trying his best to have at peek at him behind his tall desk. The chunin smiled as his leaned forward a bit to take a good look at the boy. "So this must be Naruto Uzumaki I've been hearing so much about huh?"

Jiraiya looked down at Naruto who was trying to peek up at the tall desk to look at the chunin he was talking to. The Toad Sage grabbed Naruto by the back of his shirt and lifted him up high enough to introduce him to Iruka. Earning him a 'Hey! put me down!' from the little blond as he struggled to get Jiraiya to release him. "Yup, this is the kid I told ya about. Iruka meet Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto meet Iruka Umino. He's a good friend of mine and he will be your homeroom teacher for the entirety of your stay here in the academy."

After struggling from his godfather's grip for a bit Naruto looked at Iruka for a few seconds before raising a small hand. "Yo."

"Hello there." Iruka greeted with a friendly smile. The man offered the blond a hand, which the still hanging blond, respectfully shook. "Happy to meet you. As you heard from Jiraiya-sama I will be your homeroom teacher till you graduate in a few years. Hopefully we can get along till then and maybe be good friends as well."

As Naruto release his hand from the handshake he looked over Iruka to figure out if he was lying or if he was only pretending to be nice to him because of his godfather. It wouldn't be the first time people pretended to be nice to him because of his connection with Jiraiya, but the kid found no hostility or any sort of malice in Iruka's voice when he greeted him and his friendly smile was genuine and not fake in any way.

" _Grandpa did say he's a good friend of his….that means he won't be like the rest of the villagers and look down at me_." Naruto smiled at the thought of having another person treating him like a normal person. "Yeah! Glad you'll be my teacher Iruka-sensei. Maybe you can teach me some awesome kickass jutsus, grandpa said he can't teach me anything yet cuz he's always too busy peeping at women at the hot-springs and writing his dumb books."

"It's called researching kid, not peeping!" Jiraiya annoyingly corrected as he set Naruto down and crossed his arms. The Toad Sage was both happy and relief that Iruka will be supervising Naruto's education. He did have to pull a few strings(and sign a few autographs) to get Naruto into Iruka's class but he's glad it all worked out in the end. Iruka Umino was originally one of the many shinobi that viewed Naruto as the beast he holds within but after much thinking and many conversations with Jiraiya and the Third Hokage discussing how both of he and Naruto are similar Iruka finally settled his grudge against Naruto. Iruka realized his mistake and was ashamed he consider the blond as the fox that murdered his parents, he now views the child as the jailer to the Nine-Tailed fox that killed his parents instead of the fox himself.

"And also my books aren't 'dumb', they're quality written works of adult theme literature that are highly praised by critics for their engaging plot, realistic dialogue, heartwarming romance and exquisite detail that have sold millions!" The Sannin explained before smirking at Naruto a bit. "But I wouldn't expect a brat who hasn't even hit puberty to appreciate my work of art."

"Yeah, yeah whatever you told me this before already grandpa. Your books are really well written that millions of lonely perverts read at night, I get it jeez." Naruto wined a bit, causing Jiraiya to grumble under his breath about disrespectful brats and how they don't appreciate good literature. Naruto really doesn't want to have this argument with his godfather again, it will only drag forever. "Can we please just do what we came here to do already." The blond said before looking up at Iruka. "Iruka-sensei when is the ceremony finally going to start?"

Iruka chuckled a bit at Naruto's eagerness and the interaction he just witnessed between the two just a moment ago. "Well the ceremony doesn't officially start until the Hokage arrives so we have to wait a bit." The chunin said as he got a clipboard and read it. He slightly frowned when he noticed something missing. "But in the meantime I'm going to need you to give me your Academy application if you have one or have you sign in a new one if you haven't received one in the mail. Naruto isn't on the registry yet and he can't be a student here without been enrolled first."

"What!?" Naruto said in slight panic as he looked up at Jiraiya. "Please tell me you brought my application, grandpa?"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes as he pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. "Yeah I get it here kid, don't get all worried about for nothing," The man said as he unfolded the paper and gave it to Iruka. "I don't spent all of my time researching and writing books."

Iruka took the application before reading it over. Seeing that it has the required signatures he wrote something on his clipboard and smiled at the two. "Well you now have nothing to worry about. Naruto is now officially enrolled and can now attend the academy." He said.

"All right!" Naruto cheered. "Now we just have to wait for the old man to get here."

"Old man?" Iruka questioned curiously. "Who's that?

"The Third Hokage of course!" Naruto answered enthusiastically like it was common sense.

Iruka widen his eyes in fear and stuttered a bit when he heard the blond call the leader of the village in such a way. "Y-Y-You really shouldn't call The Hokage 'old man' Naruto. He's the leader of the village and you shouldn't call someone like that by such a disrespectful name."

"It's fine Iruka, he means no disrespect." An old voiced said from the side causing the three of them to turn to look at The Third Hokage standing next to them, smoking his favorite pipe. Iruka and Naruto jumped a little when they saw the Third sneak by them that like, Jiraiya on the other hand already knew he was there he just didn't want to say anything to ruined his sensei's entrance.

"Naruto and Jiraiya have been calling me that for such a long time that it would feel strange not been called that by them." Hiruzen said as he blew some smoke into the air. "It's something I've already gotten used to, I'm afraid."

"Hokage-sama." Iruka bowed in respect to his leader.

"Old man." Naruto and Jiraiya greeted in perfect unison.

Hiruzen sighed tirelessly at them(Jiraiya and Naruto). After the long and exhausting discussion he had with his student last night he really doesn't have the patience or the energy to berate him and the little blond at the moment.

"Now then." Hiruzen started. "We should commence with the ceremony, people have waited long enough."

The three of them nodded as Jiraiya and Naruto went to join the group of waiting parents and children. Some of the civilian parents move their children slightly away from Naruto but not too far to make it look like they don't want to be near him. Jiraiya inwardly sighed at their behavior, he can only hope that their children won't behave the same way with Naruto now that their parents' won't be there to drag them away from him. It'll hard for Naruto to make any friends if all the children push him away because of what their parents' told them about him. If Naruto could at least make one friend from the academy then that would be great for the kid.

As Jiraiya looked around he noticed that a number of clan heirs are also present. Most noticeably the heirs to the Aburame, Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Nara, Akamichi, Yamanaka and Uchiha clans. All of them were there with at least one of their parents except for the Uchiha heir and Hyuuga heiress.

The younger Uchiha wasn't accompanied by either of his parents but by his older brother instead, the Uchiha clan leader's first born and true heir; Itachi Uchiha. The teen looked exactly like how sensei described him, a prodigy child with a battle hardened expression most seasoned ninja don't have. Jiraiya read all about the Uchiha and his exploits, the boy was a natural prodigy before he even set foot in the academy when he was seven years old. Graduated only a year after he excelled at everything thrown at him. Not to long after the boy became a chunin at ten and then an ANBU member shortly after. Only recently did the teen got promoted to ANBU captain, something Jiraiya thought was an a near impossibility considering his age, but if there is one thing travelling the shinobi world has taught him is that there are those who are younger than him but stronger than himself. It's almost scary how the Uchiha prodigy closely reminds him of his former teammate in terms of ability and intellect.

By the looks of it Itachi was happily talking with his younger brother about something. Whatever they're discussing the younger brother was ecstatic to have the opportunity to converse with his older brother. Except for his spiky hairstyle and lack of tear-troughs the boy looks almost identical to his brother and he wore the exact same clothes as Itachi; same high-collar black shirt, black pants, black sandals and bandages wrapped around his ankles. It didn't take long to realize the two brothers were very close.

Jiraiya then turned his eye to the other pair.

The Hyuuga heiress was with who looks to be her caretaker and not her father. The Sannin figured Hiashi was either too busy or too disinterested to even bother to show up show up to his own daughter's entrance ceremony. Jiraiya already knows what type of person the stoic clan leader was but he couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed at the man for not been here with his daughter during a very important day. The man did noticed that the Hyuuga heiress was looking slightly at his direction before quickly averting her gaze with a slight blush. The girl turned her head slightly so that only the corner of her eyes were seen.

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow and followed her gaze. He almost laugh when he ended up looking at Naruto's head. The man almost had to bit his tongue to stop him from laughing in public at the sudden new development.

" _So Hiashi's daughter is interested in the kid huh?"_ Jiraiya thought in amusement. He then had a brilliant idea pop up in his head. " _This could make for a great plot for the next installment to my series!_ " Not wanting to miss anything the man got out a notepad and pen and wrote everything down, he had a huge grin as he wrote his idea with great energy. " _A noble and modest princess from a well respected kingdom falls in love with the most kind-hearted boy from her kingdom, but the boy is from one of the most poorest families in the kingdom and also the most hated because of an ancient curse a witch cast on his family almost 1,000 years ago…"_

Jiraiya giggle a bit at his genius as he continued to write the plot to his next big hit. He blushed a bit when he thought about of all the wild and crazy nights the two will have in the future. He wrote even faster at the idea but quickly stopped his actions and put his materials away when he saw the Hokage making his way towards them.

Hiruzen made his way in front of the group where a small platform stood for him to overlook the entire group. He stood on the platform to gain everybody's attention and to commence the ceremony, all of the school instructors were standing behind and facing the group as well, each with a clipboard in hand.

"First I would like to start with an apology for my late attendance." Hiruzen started out as he blew some smoke. "I've realize that some of you have been waiting for some time now and to those of you have my sincere apologies but as many of you must realize my duties as Hokage takes a toll on me. But even so it isn't a big enough excuse for me to miss the opportunity to welcome the next generation of protectors of our village." He finished of with a grandfather like tone and smile. "In my many years as the Hokage I've attended these ceremonies every time because there is nothing that fills me more with great pride than to witness The Will of Fire been passed on to our next generation of Leaf Shinobi. Know that the road ahead of you won't be an easy one but it's a road that we as shinobi most travel in order to protect all that we hold dear. Because it is only when you have something or someone precious to protect does true strength manifests itself. We are more than just a village, we are family, a household that cannot stand without supporting one another in times of great crisis. Remember that you can never accomplish anything without the help of your comrades and those around you, because without them you will only fail to succeed in anything. But above anything else I would like to say welcome all of you and good luck to all of you as you begin your long journey ahead in becoming protectors of our home."

When the Hokage finished many of the parents and children clapped at the Hokage's inspiration speech. Even Jiraiya and Naruto clapped at Hiruzen's inspiration words.

Sarutobi smiled at the response and turned to the academy instructors. "I'll leave the rest to you, good luck to you all." He said before disappearing in a body flicker.

The instructors nodded and one of them step forward a bit with a clipboard in hand. "Alright, we will begin to assign students to their homeroom teachers, if your name is call please step forward and form a single file line in front of your instructor and wait for further instructions."

Various names were called and assigned to different teachers. In time Iruka stepped in and to call out the names of his students in alphabetical order by last name. Each student he called quickly gave their parents' a goodbye before stepping forward and getting in line in front of the man. The chunin was a bit surprised when found out that all of the clan heirs were assigned to him but he considered it an honor that he's going to be teaching future clan heads. After a while he reached the last names beginning with U.

"Next is Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka called out.

Many of the parents conversing with each other stopped their talking when one of the names was called out. They stayed silent as Sasuke bid his brother goodbye with Itachi responding with a slight poke to his little brother's forehead and a good luck. Once that was all done Sasuke quickly got in line with the rest of the students.

Naruto too started making his way towards the line but was stopped by a hand placed on his shoulder. He looked back and saw the hand belonged to his godfather who was looking at him with a small proud smile.

"Good luck, Naruto." Jiraiya proudly said. "I know you would have love your parents to be here with you instead, but I hope you're not too mad I'm here in their place."

Naruto didn't know how to respond to what his godfather just said. It's true that he would have love to have this moment shared with his parents, whoever they were, but he's more than happy that his godfather is here with him. The man took care of him for as long as the blond can remember and during all that time he always treated him like family. When almost eveybody shunned him Jiraiya was always there to cheer him up. It didn't matter to him if he only visits during somedays. The fact still remains that he was always there for him and he never gave him any reason to believe he wouldn't come back. They might not be related by blood but Naruto views Jiraiya as the closest thing to a father he will ever have and he's never going to be ungrateful or unappreciated of that, even if he is a pervert.

"It's ok, grandpa." Naruto responded before grinning toothily. "I'm not mad at all. Actually I'm happy you came with me, it kinda feels like having a dad here with me y'know. So thank you."

Before Jiraiya can give any sort of response Naruto quickly made his way towards his class and got in line, leaving Jiraiya's hand still hanging from when he grabbed Naruto by the shoulder. Many of the parents glared at the blond's back as he and the rest of the class listen to Iruka's instructions before making their way inside the academy building.

Jiraiya's hand was still left hanging in midair from where Naruto's shoulder has been. He's still trying to recover from what the blond just said to him. The words he said to him are still lingering in his mind.

" _It kinda feels like having a dad here with me y'know. So thank you._ "

" _A dad huh?_ "Jiraiya thought as he regain his focus. He lower his hand and placed it inside his pocket. " _Sorry to tell you this kid but… I don't deserve the honor to be called that, not from you. I'm more than happy to be called your grandpa._ " The Toad sage then slightly shook his head the thought. " _Wait a minute. Ok wait, never mind. I'll be happy if you call me by anything as long as it's not by THAT name._ "

Deciding that he doesn't want to reminded by the uncool name Naruto came up with Jiraiya, along with the rest of the parents, left the academy grounds until it's time to return to pick of their kids in a few hours.

As Jiraiya left he decided to go find somebody that was just with him and the group of parents dropping of their kids. He figured now is the best opportunity to do so since he probably won't get a chance to in the future. The Sannin knows the person should be close by since they all left the academy grounds at the same time but right now he's having a bit of trouble finding him.

" _Where is he?_ " Jiraiya thought as he continued his search. " _Don't tell me he already left?! Damn that kid._ "

* * *

A slightly mad Itachi Uchiha was making his way towards his clan compound just after accompanying his little brother to his entrance inauguration. Reason he's mad right now is because his mother and father couldn't, or rather, refused to attend the ceremony with Sasuke. They told him that they have much more important matters to attend to than participating in something trivial such as an entrance ceremony. Itachi knew what "important matters" his parents were discussing but that still didn't give them a good enough reason to miss Sasuke's first day at the ninja academy. The older Uchiha knew his little brother was looking forward to the event with their parents and knowing they wouldn't be there with him greatly sadden Sasuke. Thankfully Sasuke quickly got over his sadness when Itachi told him that he will go with him instead. Even though Sasuke forgave his parents Itachi still hasn't and is he's doubtful he ever will.

" _Mother and Father had the time to accompany me when I first started the academy._ " Itachi bitterly thought to himself before sighing. " _Although the circumstances then where much more different and lax then than they are today. I can only hope things won't get out of control in the near future._ " With that he mind he continued his walk back to the Uchiha compound in silence. He made a right turn to a street completely void of any person. As he continued his walk he failed to notice somebody following him a few feet away.

"Itachi Uchiha." A male voice call out from behind him.

Itachi stopped on his tracks when he heard the voice. The tone wasn't threatening but it wasn't friendly either. One thing is certain is that Itachi doesn't know who the voice belongs to. The teen slightly cursed himself for getting distracted and for not noticing that somebody was following him. He turned his head slightly to look at who called him, his eyes were now crimson red with three tomoe surrounding his pupil. Itachi quickly deactivated his sharingan when he realized who it was. He turned around to greet the man. "Jiraiya-sama… to what do I owe the honor of meeting you?" The teen greeted.

Jiraiya just shrugged. "Nothing really, I just wanted to have the chance to finally meet the famous Uchiha prodigy a lot of people keep taking about." The man said as he put his hands inside his pockets. "Gotta say I'm a bit disappointed you didn't notice me tailing you, guess I overestimated you."

Itachi didn't say anything at the man's comment. His only response was turning around with his back facing the man. "Some would say that it's more wise to overestimate your opponent rather than underestimating them. If one does the opposite then they are more likely to get killed by that enemy they previously thought was weaker than them." He said to the Sannin. "Arrogance has killed far more shinobi than ignorance."

"I agree with that but you misunderstood. I'm not an enemy, Itachi." Jiraiya said as he walked next to the Uchiha prodigy. "And I wouldn't be dumb enough to underestimate someone who made ANBU captain at 13. Gotta say that's pretty impressive, your parents must be proud of you."

When Jiraiya mentioned his parents Itachi slightly narrowed his eyes. "They indeed are, they see this as a great opportunity for me to mature and get stronger so that when the time comes I can lead the clan efficiently." The teen said before he started walking away. "If there is nothing more you wanted to discuss about besides my abilities then you must excuse me, Jiraiya-sama. I'm already late and I must return back to my clan's compound to discuss with my mother and father about my next mission."

"Actually there is something else I wanted to talk to you about." Jiraiya called out before his face took a serious look. "It's about what your parents and clan are planning to do. No need to beat around the bush anymore kid, I know everything."

Itachi stopped dead on his track when he heard that. He turned around once more to look at the white-haired man again. "So you know, not surprising since you are one of The Legendary Sannin and formerly one of the Third Hokage's students." The teen then sighed lowly. "Then you must already be aware how fragile the situation is between my clan and the village, the police force is already getting impatient if the way they are handling arrests is any indication and the public is already starting to view the force in a negative light as a result. If this continues then it could only end disastrous for both sides."

"And that is something both of us don't want." Jiraiya stated. "Sarutobi-sensei already fill me in on all the details yesterday but I just wanted to confirm it with you." The Sannin dragged a hand through his mane and sighed. "Man how I wish what the old man told me last night was just some crazy dream."

Itachi nodded in agreement. "How I wish that were the case but if you want to discuss the matter we should be somewhere more private and with an audience with the Hokage. Maybe we can find a peaceful solution and stop this disaster before it begins."

"And how do you think we can 'find a peaceful solution and stop this disaster' huh?" Jiraiya questioned skeptically. "If there is one I know about your clan is that they can be stubborn when they want to be and this isn't exactly something that can be fixed easily when stubbornness is involved. How do you think we should go through with this?"

"I'll find a way." The Uchiha answered back.

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes dangerously at the Uchiha's answer. "What do you mean 'I'll find a way'? I don't know if you realized this but this isn't an easy problem a single person can solve alone, kid. No matter if you are a once in a generation genius prodigy from a powerful clan this is just something you can't solve by yourself. Or have you already forgotten that The Hokage just gave a speech about this a few minutes ago at the academy. 'Remember that you can never accomplish anything without the help of your comrades and those around you, because without them you will only fail to succeed in anything.' When he said that he didn't just addressed it to the kids but to everyone there as well. So keep that in mind when you think about this." The man then turned around and began walking away. "You're a smart kid Itachi, I know that. Hell you might even be smarter than me but you're not omnipotent. Remember that I'm also a Hidden Leaf ninja that cares about the safety of his home. We'll talk about this later in a more private location, right now I got…other matters to attend to, see ya."

Itachi didn't say anything as he watched the Legendary Sannin walk away. Once the man was out of his sights he thought about what he just told him about his situation. Previously Itachi always thought he could solve anything all by himself without any sort assistance, that's how its always been for him ever since he became a shinobi. Been a genius and prodigy meant he didn't have to rely on anybody else because he always did things perfectly all alone. But with such a difficult situation at hand he's unsure if he can solve this alone without massive consequences. He's willing to sacrifice almost everything for the safety of his home even if it brings shame to his name, but he isn't sure if he's willing to sacrifice the things he truly cherishes.

"Itachi-kun!" A female voiced out behind him. Itachi turned around to the source of the voice. It was a girl about his age running towards him at a fast paced. Once she caught up to him she put her hand on her knees and panted tirelessly to catch her breath. "…I've finally found you, Itachi-kun."

The girl had long brown hair with bangs framing her face and onyx eyes with a mole resting under her right eye. She wore a high-collared sleeveless purple shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol in the back and baggy blue pants. A Hidden Leaf headband was tied around her forehead showing she was a Leaf ninja.

"Izumi…" Itachi acknowledged. "What are you doing here, weren't you supposed to be back at the compound attending the meeting my father called for with the rest of the clan?"

Once she finished catching her breath Izumi stood up to look at Itachi. "I was but your father was waiting for you so he can start the meeting but you didn't showed up. So he sent me to go looking for you." Izumi answered honestly. "I searched around but I couldn't find you anywhere."

"But how did you find me?" He questioned her.

"I found Jiraiya-sama and he noticed me looking for someone. When I told him I was searching for you he pointed me to this direction." She answered before giving of a sigh a relief. "And thank goodness I found you when I did, I was starting to worry about you."

Itachi nodded at the girls answered. "It's fine, you can relax now. I was just taking a leisurely stroll around the village." He then began walking back the compound with Izumi walking close by him. "I... apologize if I caused you any trouble with my father."

"N-No, No, it's fine." Izumi waved her hands defensively with a small blush on her face. "Actually, Fugaku-sama originally ordered Shisui-san to find you but I volunteered to go in his place instead."

Itachi smiled at the way Izumi was acting all flustered. "I see, well thank you for taking the time to look for me. I appreciate it."

Izumi blushed more at the boy's thanks. "S-Sure, no problem." She mumbled.

The two continued making their way back to the Uchiha district in comfortable silence. As they walked Izumi thought about the upcoming meeting her clan were about to partake in. She knows what the meeting was about and what is going to happen in the near future and the reason why.

It all began seven years ago after the Nine-Tails attack on the village. After the fox was defeated people around the village began to suspect the Uchiha clan had a part in it. Even though her clan participated in the effort to defeat the beast and lost members to it rumors started appearing out of nowhere that a member of the Uchiha clan played a part in its sudden appearance in the village. Fugaku tried everything within his power to dismissed the rumors as nothing but lies to turn the village against the Uchiha, thankfully a majority of the villagers believed the clan leader but some people weren't buying it and remain suspicious about the clan. But all of his efforts were for naught when The Hokage didn't even come out in defense of the Uchiha clan, a clan that help create The Hidden Leaf itself. That made it seem like the clan wasn't completely innocent at all and it refueled the people's suspicion of the clan tenfold. And ever since then the relationship between the Uchiha and the village began to strain, the police force became more violent and began to arrest civilians for mundane crimes. The civilian population began fighting back in some cases leading in some brawls between the police force and the populace. It also didn't help that the Uchiha district was also isolated from most of the village and built right next to a former prison. All of that lead to the clan's current situation and forcing Fugaku Uchiha along with a significant number of clan members to formulate a plan of action. A plan she strongly disagrees with.

Once the entrance of Uchiha clan district was in sight Izumi stopped to grab Itachi's left hand with her right. "Itachi-kun, I..I don't want to the meeting." She tightened her grip on his hand and slightly lower her head. "You know I don't like what our clan is planning to do, I hate everything about it. But what are we supposed to do about it? I love our clan but hate what it's about to do to our village. Its just.. I'm scare and I don't know what to do! Am I supposed to be mad or sad that this is happening?!"

Itachi didn't say anything as he looked at Izumi's lowered head, he noticed that some tears were hitting the ground showing that she was crying. His gazed then shifted to her hand holding his, up until now she never had the courage to do something like that. He's fully aware about her feelings towards him ever since he saved her seven years ago from falling debris caused by the Nine-Tail's attack. He always thought it was nothing more but a little schoolgirl crush and he had hoped that she would grow out of those feelings when she became a kunoichi. But it seems like that isn't the case. With the unknown future ahead of them he doesn't blame her for her acting the way she is now.

"I know…" Itachi finally responded as he softly squeezed her hand. "Believe it or not but I too am frightened about all of this. I never would have imagined our clan would walk down this path of darkness and hatred. But I can assure you that I wil- , No. We will do everything in our power to try and prevent our clan from going forward with their plan. But for now we have to attend the meeting my father called for, ok?"

"Ok." Izumi nodded as she wiped the tears of her face with her left arm while still holding Itachi's hand. "But.. how are we going to stop them?" She asked as she lower her arm to looked up at Itachi's eyes with her slightly puffy red ones. "The clan is getting impatient and we don't know when exactly the plan will start."

"Don't worry about that for now." Itachi reassured as he started making his way inside the Uchiha district with Izumi in towed. He then started making his way towards the meeting place; The Naka shrine. All the while he still hasn't noticed that he was still holding on to the girl's hand. "Me and Shisui already have a plan in place to stop this madness, but if for some reason that doesn't work we will need to come up with an alternative to minimize the damage and harm to both the village and our clan."

Izumi nodded her head in agreement at the idea. She's glad Itachi is finally opening up to her more, she just hoped that it were under different circumstances and not in a time of great crisis. She did noticed that he hasn't let go of her hand and didn't seem like he was planning on letting go by the way he held it. His hand was surprisingly soft for a boy who was known to be a master at throwing kunai and shuriken with pinpoint accuracy, yet it still held a slight rough feel to them. With a resolve of her own she tighten her grip on his hand as the two of them continued on with their way hand in hand.

* * *

 **There, was it worth the wait? Some of you will say "HAHA LOL NOPE DROPPED. Xd!" but come on guys! Give this struggling person a break here. You already know my excuses so I'm not going to repeat them.**

 **Yeah...Sorry.**

 **Anyways don't forget to TITTY SMACK that like button down below if we can get a billion likes I'll do a face reveal and do a free giveaway. As always don't forget to leave a thumbs up, drop a comment, favorite, subscribe to my channel, share this vid, follow me on twitter, facebook, instragram, snapchat and whatever other social media site there is, buy my shirts, support us on Payapal , my GoFundMe link is down in the description, use the promo code "SellOut" to get 0% off all my merchandise, get a free 2 minute premium trial on Crunchyroll and FUNimation when you sign up using the code "LivingBreathingAdvertisment", FREE LOOTCRATES, add me on steam, PSN, x-box live, add my friend code, buy my book, use the #RunningOutOfIdeas and leave a review.**

 **This chapter was sponsored by our old friends at this website. Whenever you're bored and obsessed with an anime to the point where you're writting characters from that show doing absolutely crazy things then this is the place to go to. Share your wild and crazy ideas with the entire world and showed them how much you disagree with the way your favorite manga or anime ended by writting you're headcanon online** **for free!**

 **Peace!**


End file.
